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SPIRITUALISM 



SPIRITUALISM 

ITS HISTORY, PHENOMENA 
AND DOCTRINE 



BY 
Jl ARTHUR HILL 

AUTHOR OF "MAN IS A SPIRIT," "PSYCHICAL INVESTIGATIONS,' 

"NEW EVIDENCES IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH," 

ETC. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE 




new xar' YORK 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



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COPYRIGHT, 19 19, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



PRINTED |N THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



°7 



M 14 1919 
©CI. A 5! 2645 



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PREFACE 

THIS book has been written in response to a sugges- 
tion that I should prepare a volume giving a com- 
prehensive answer to the question: "What is Spiritual- 
ism?" A large literature of the subject exists, the lib- 
rary of the London Spiritualist Alliance containing 
about 3,000 volumes; but the aspects are many, the 
ramifications extensive, and there is no single work that 
presents a review of the whole, except Mr. Podmore's 
"Modern Spiritualism" (2 vols., 1902), which, besides 
being too bulky for any but a determined student, is 
now regarded by most investigators as being too nega- 
tive. The progress of psychical research in the last six- 
teen years has raised into new credibility many narra- 
tives which, in those earlier days, a cautious mind could 
not even provisionally accept. 

Here it is necessary or desirable that I should indi- 
cate my own position, in order that the reader may 
know how to discount my opinions. In debatable mat- 
ters, we naturally want to know exactly where a writer 
stands, before we can decide how far to rely on what 
he says ; for, though he may be perfectly honest, he may 
involuntarily be very unfair if he happens to have 
strong preferences. 

I was never a materialist, for I happened to read 
Berkeley at an unusually early age; but I was unable 
to believe in an angry God who would punish for ever 



vi PREFACE 

— not for wicked acts towards one's fellow-creatures, 
but for holding incorrect theological opinions during 
our short span of a few years — and consequently our 
saintly old minister did the opposite of what he in- 
tended; instead of making me a Christian according 
to his definition, he made me a Huxleyan. 

A rather close reading of evolutionary literature, 
plus some years of laboratory work which taught me 
scientific method, plus a fair amount of philosophy- 
browsing and a careful reading of Carlyle, Emerson, 
Tennyson, etc. — I had not then grown up to Brown- 
ing — landed me safely in the "reverent agnosticism" 
which was to be expected; and there I stayed, with 
perhaps a slight tendency away from the fighting tem- 
per of Huxley towards the milder mood of Emerson, 
until I was over thirty. Then I became acquainted 
with a certain medium whose queer powers puzzled me. 
Previously I had, of course, scoffed at the whole thing, 
even when intimate friends of mine described their 
own inexplicable experiences. But I was soon com- 
pelled to admit that there was "something in it". I 
began to read spiritualistic literature, but it did not im- 
press me. The writers were mostly unknown, their 
experiments were not described with sufficient fulness 
or exactness, and they often seemed ready to believe 
anything. Then I joined the Society for Psychical Re- 
search, and found what I wanted. Here was real evi- 
dence, set out in detail by men like Sir William Crookes, 
Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Sidgwick, and others, 
whose work I knew and could rely on in other depart- 
ments. I read all the S.P.R. publications, and was 
greatly impressed ; in fact, convinced so far as the logic 



PREFACE vii 

of the thing went — i.e. I felt that the evidence was 
sufficient to justify belief in the happenings and even 
in a spiritistic explanation of some of them. But per- 
sonal experience is necessary before real conviction of 
new truth can be attained, when one has remained in 
ignorance until over thirty; so I set myself to investi- 
gation. I sat with many mediums, professional and 
private, and the result was that I was gradually driven 
to admit that phenomena certainly happen which ortho- 
dox science does not explain or even recognise, that 
some of them may be due to not understood subliminal 
activities of living people, or to still more unknown 
causes, but that some others point to the agency of dis- 
carnate human beings. 

I described some of these experiences in my 
book, "Psychical Investigations," and in earlier vol- 
umes; but the printed records are incomplete, much 
evidential private matter having had to be ex- 
cluded because it involved other living people who 
would object to publicity. If we investigators could 
publish everything, our case would be much stronger. 

In short, then, I believe that the survival of human 
beings past death, and the possibility of occasional com- 
munication, is a legitimate inference from the facts. 
I do not believe that communication is as free or as fre- 
quent as most spiritualists seem to think. I am not con- 
vinced that the regular trance-controls are spirits at all ; 
they may be parts of the medium's subliminal, acting as 
channels for communications from beyond. And there 
are some phases of mediumship — apports, for instance 
— which I have never witnessed, the phenomena being 
rare. As to such unwitnessed things, my attitude is one 



viii PREFACE 

of suspense of judgment. I neither believe nor disbe- 
lieve. Those who have had convincing experiences in 
these departments may think that I dismiss them too 
lightly. I can only ask their indulgence. I must see 
and hear for myself, before I can really believe. I have 
tried to obtain as much personal experience as possible, 
but opportunities in some directions have been lacking. 

The foregoing necessarily egoistic account may en- 
able the reader to discount my statements in such way 
as he may think fit. Perhaps I had better add that on 
the emotional side I have little or no desire for per- 
sonal survival, having been accustomed for many years 
(in consequence of early hell-teaching) to hope that it 
was not a fact; for, though not accepting that terrible 
doctrine, my mind was inevitably influenced more or 
less by exposure to such insistent dogmatism in my de- 
fenceless childhood, and obviously annihilation was 
preferable to hell. Later, perceiving that the material 
universe seems essentially indestructible, I inclined to 
a similar conservation of spirit though not a continu- 
ance of present personalities. The body ceases to ex- 
ist though its elements continue but are redistributed, 
and the soul may similarly disintegrate into lower 
compounds or psychic elements. But the evidence told 
against that theory and in favour of greater integra- 
tion and advance. 

So far, then, as introspection goes, I seem to myself 
to be an impartial witness. Mr. G. B. Shaw, however, 
says that in debatable questions it is best not to listen 
to the fool who imagines himself impartial, but to have 
the case argued out with reckless bias on both sides. 



PREFACE ix 

Well, those who wish to read the reckless arguings of 
both sides will be able to do so by obtaining the vari- 
ous books mentioned in the following pages, and the 
opinions of the fool who quotes them may be disre- 
garded. 

In this matter of books quoted, my indebtedness is 
obvious and inevitable. I have endeavoured, indeed, 
to supply not only an outline of the whole subject, but 
also to indicate, by quotations and references, how that 
outline may be filled in by readers who find themselves 
sufficiently interested. In furnishing this guidance, 
which would have been useful to me at the beginning 
of my own studies, I must ask the indulgence of the 
many readers who — being already familiar with the 
literature — will not need it. 

One book there is, and one man's work, which I have 
perhaps not made adequately prominent, though quot- 
ing it in places. Emerson says somewhere : "Of Plato 
I hesitate to speak, lest there should be no end"; and 
the psychical researcher feels somewhat thus about F. 
W. H. Myers. Without him, the S.P.R. would never 
have been what it is, many active investigators would 
never have taken up the subject, and many books would 
never have been written. Our debt to him is quite 
beyond computation. Let the earnest student read his 
great work, "Human Personality and Its Survival of 
Bodily Death", preferably in the unabridged two-vol- 
ume edition, and he will find incomparably the most 
systematic and extensive presentation of psychical re- 
search up to the year 1900, when Myers died. It em- 
bodies the results of the investigation and reflection of 
a man of first-rate ability, who gave his life to pioneer- 



x PREFACE 

ing in scientifically unsurveyed regions, well knowing 
that he thereby sacrificed place and fame during his 
lifetime. And, in addition to its systematic scientific 
presentment, it is a literary masterpiece of the first 
order. It has been well said that Myers's prose is equal 
to Ruskin's at its best ; it was not surpassed, in its kind, 
by any writer of his century. 

If, then, I seem to have said too little in the text 
about the leader to whom we owe so much, it is be- 
cause anything I could say would be so hopelessly in- 
adequate. Students must read him for themselves, and 
they will understand. 

Chapter X of Part I appeared as an article, in 
slightly different form, in the Occult Review for Au- 
gust, 1917, and Chapter VI of Part II appeared in 
the Hibbert Journal for October, 1916. The remain- 
der of the volume is new. 

J. A. H. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction by Sir A. Conan Doyle 

PART I 

CHAPTER 

I. Antecedents of Modern Spiritualism . . 1 

Fundamental conception of Survival and Communication 
not new — Communion of Saints — Rise of Science and 
Critical method — Moral revolt against Hell — Disbelief 
in Survival resulted from these two causes — Spiritualism 
restored Belief, on basis of facts as in Early Christianity 
— Providential wisdom shown in delay of Psychical Sci- 
ence until after establishment of Physical Science — Bib- 
lical Spiritualism — Greek Oracles — Plutarch — Virgil, 
Eneas' Vision, Dido's Dream — Pliny — Neo-Platonism — 
Chinese Spiritualism — Jews and Teraphim — Nuns of 
Cevennes — St. MSdard — Irvingites 

II. SWEDENBORG 17 

Birth (1688) and Education — Assessor — Scientific genius 
— Illumination in 1743 — "Arcana Ccelestia" — The Stock- 
holm fire — The Herteville case of Hidden Receipt — Kant's 
opinion — Swedenborg's sanity — Details about Next State 
— Recognition by friends — Continuity of character — 
Children grow up — Heavens and Hells — Houses, cities — 
All Angels first human beings — Swedenborg to be re- 
garded as Prophet but not infallible 

III. Confluence of Swedenborgianism and Mes- 
merism in America 30 

Swedenborg not unique — Other Trance-seers — Mesmer's 
patients — Jung-Stilling — Mesmerism in New England — 
Crank communities — O. W. Holmes — Emerson — A. J. 
Davis — Clairvoyance — His first book, 1847 — Teaching — 
Spheres — Hudson Tuttle's doctrine as to the Spheres — 
Professor Hare, Epes Sargent, Judge Edmunds 

xi 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. The Hydesville Knockings 40 

Fox family of Hydesville — Raps, 1848 — Supposed mur- 
der, not well evidenced — Controversy concerning the 
raps — the Buffalo doctors — No certainty now attainable 
— Dr. Phelp's Poltergeist — A. J. Davis's opinion — Judge 
Edmunds's 

V. Early Days in England 44 

Mrs. Hayden and Mrs. Roberts — D. D. Home — Brown- 
ing's suggestion of fraud unfounded — Mrs. Lyon — No- 
table sitters with Home — His travels — Sir William 
Crookes's investigations — Automatic Writing and Draw- 
ing by the Howitts and others — Angel Gabriel — But good 
done in spite of extravagances — Secularists converted — 
Spiritual Telegraph at Keighley — Davenport Brothers — 
Mrs. Everitt — David Duguid — Eglinton — Evidence for 
Materialisation inconclusive — The Dialectical Society's 
Report 

VI. William Stainton Moses 60 

Birth (1839) and Education — Curacies — Mastership at 
University College School — Death in 1892 — His phenom- 
ena — Serjeant Cox's description of incidents — The Speer 
sittings — Musician-spirits— Imperator — Main aim the 
broadening of Mr. Moses' theology — Evidential details — 
Steam-roller — Blanche Abercromby — Abraham Floren- 
tine — Testimony to Mr. Moses' high character — His 
books 

VII. The Society for Psychical Research . . 70 

Founding by Cox of "Psychological Society," 1875 — Dis- 
solved in 1879 — S. P. R. founded, 1882 — Objects — Meth- 
ods — No creed — Critics — Mrs. Piper — Integrity — Phinuit 
regime — George Pelham — "Imperator" band — Classical 
matter unknown to the medium — Manner of the trance — 
Now ceased — Other mediums, non-professional — Mrs. 
Thompson — Reports by Dr. van Eeden and Mrs. Verrall 
— Cross-correspondences — Classical allusions in scripts of 
non-classical Automatists — General mind-stuff theory — 
Sir Oliver Lodge's "Raymond" — Sir William Barrett's 
"On the Threshold of the Unseen" 

VIII. Physical Phenomena 94 

Line rather arbitrary, but Physical Phenomena mostly 
meaning demonstrably Supernormal movement or Be- 
haviour of Matter — The Wesley haunt — Worksop and 



CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER PAGB 

Folkestone poltergeists — Eusapia Palladino — Raps — Dr. 
Joseph Maxwell — Dr. Crawford and the Goligher circle — 
Direct Voice, Admiral Usborne Moore's investigations — 
Spirit Photography 

IX. Confirmatory Phenomena in India . . . 109 

Wide distribution of phenomena — Jacollist's book — Vase- 
movements — Raps — Table made heavy — Harmoniflute 
playing untouched — Materialisation — Identity-evidence 
— Jacollist's Sceptical attitude — The Brahmanic scheme 
very like that of A. T. Davis 

X. Ghosts 116 

Facts in nature, though exceptional ones, like globular 
lightning — Definition — " Hallucination " — " Proceedings," 
S. P. R., vol x — "Phantasms of the Living" — Mr. 
Walker-Anderson's case — Projection of Phantasm by Mr. 
S. H. Beard — Possible subjectivity — Local Ghosts — 
Lytton and eidola, ghost being only a partial manifesta- 
tion of the total self — "Induced" Ghost seeing: normal 
Clairvoyance — Illustrations of Mr. Wilkinson's medium- 
ship — Evidence that deceased people come to meet their 
dying friends 

XI. On Evidence, Proof and Belief .... 126 

Survival accepted even by sceptical wing of S. P. R. — 
Mrs. Sidgwick — Difference between Psychical Research- 
ers and Spiritualists — Subliminal Memory — Coleridge's 
story of the polyglossal servant-girl — Hypnotic experi- 
ments — Multiple personality — Blanche Poynings — But 
evidence goes beyond Subliminal Memory — Nature of 
Trance-Controls — Standards of proof — Critic's low stan- 
dard — Must be cumulative — Coercive proof not possible 
— Psychology of belief — Personal history in reaching 
convictions 

PART II 

I. Spiritualism as a Religion 143 

Cause of Spiritualistic Secession from other sects — Not 
antagonistic to any except those holding crude beliefs 
mainly as to Eschatology — Seven Principles of Spiritual- 
ism — More Christian than some modern forms of Chris- 
tianity — Organisation — Number of Societies — Demo- 
cratic, as Christianity was at first — Specimen service, 
with Clairvoyance — Sunday Schools or Lyceums — Their 
methods 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

II. Spiritualism as a Religion (continued) . . 171 

Internal friction and fission in Societies — Lack of Rever- 
ence in services — Longwindedness of speakers — Some 
"mediums" not mediumistic but only cases of Multiple 
Personality — Necessity of evidence of Supernormality — 
Private circles — Questionably good — Dark sittings — But 
notwithstanding crudities, Spiritualists have the root of 
the matter — They have forced the facts into prominence 
— Spiritualism in America, France, Italy, Germany, 
Spain, South America, Russia, Australia, New Zealand — 
Agitation at home for repeal of Witchcraft Laws — Case 
for and against 

III. Materialistic and Other Objections . . 180 

A priori negations — The things do not happen — Professor 
Miinsterberg, Mr. Frederic Harrison, Tyndall — Huxley's 
wiser attitude — Mr. Edward Clodd — Sir E. Ray Lan- 
kester — No experimental demonstration of Volcanic erup- 
tions, Earthquakes, or even Thunderstorms possible 

IV. Roman Catholic and Mystical Objections . 191 

The things happen, but are the work of Devils — Lord 
Alfred Douglas — Prohibition wise for many people — But 
conservatism may be overdone — High moral teaching — 
Father Bernard Vaughan — Mystical objections — Some 
force in them, and valid for some people — But Reason is 
a Divine Gift, as well as Intuition — Civilisation a good 
thing — But each must decide for himself — All extremes 
to be avoided, but no directions banned 

V. Some Protestant Objections 200 

Misunderstanding that spirits can be "called up" — The 
Christian and Joyful News — Allegations of insanity 
caused — Probably more insanity caused by Hell-belief — 
Specific answers to the charge — "Triviality" of Messages 
— But small things are often the best evidence — And 
A. J. Davis wrote thirty volumes of serious matter, non- 
evidential — Leviticus — But do its quoters observe its 
other prohibitions as well? — Bishop of Oxford — A weighty 
objection — Belief in Survival more wholesomely based on 
faith in God than on phenomena — But the Early Chris- 
tians based their belief on Phenomena (Christ's Resur- 
rection) — And for many people a Phenomena-based Be- 
lief seems the only way back to Religion 



CONTENTS xv 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VI. Fechner's Theory of Life after Death . 212 

The World-Soul — Human Personality perhaps a part of 
it — Inorganic Matter not unconscious — Saturated with 
Mind — But Selves do not merge after bodily Death — 
Individuality continues to grow — The post-mortem Body 
— Material results of Earth-Actions and Thoughts — 
Rapport-objects — Links up with Myers's Subliminal — 
Recognition after Death — Deeper sleep, wider memory, 
till Death restores all, forgotten things having preceded 
us — Scientific nature of Fechner's system 

VII. Spiritualistic Conceptions of After-Death 

Conditions 228 

Swedenborgian in asserting Similarity to Earth-life, but 
more optimistic — Universal Salvation — Spheres — Jews 
and Plurality of Heavens — Paul's "Third Heaven" — 
Summerland — Tuttle, McKenzie, Wilson — The Theo- 
sophical scheme — A compromise scheme suggested, in- 
cluding elements of Origen and Fechner — Best Spiritual- 
istic opinion wisely restrained as to Definite Spheres — 
Stead's "After Death" — Excessive Mourning wrong — 
Love the chief thing — Experiences at Death — Stainton 
Moses, information from spirit about conditions over 
there — Reality of the life 

VIII. Conclusion 244 

Summing up — Belief in Survival became moribund in 
early nineteenth century — Spiritualism revived it by 
finding and emphasising same sort of Phenomena as 
those on which Christianity was based — Swedenborg had 
prepared the way — S. P. R. work — But Spiritualism is 
more than belief in Survival and Communication, it is a 
Religion — Includes Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood 
of Man — Is nearer the Christianity of the first three cen- 
turies than is the Christian Orthodoxy of to-day — Oppo- 
sition based mainly on ignorance — Nature of future life — 
Spiritualistic opinion regarding Christ — The seven articles 
repeated 



INTRODUCTION 

IF I were asked to recommend a course of reading for 
an intelligent agnostic who knew nothing about 
psychic science, I should be inclined to begin it by- 
choosing the five successive books in which Mr. J. Ar- 
thur Hill has exhibited the unfolding of his own mind. 
Such reading has the advantage that the inquiring ag- 
nostic and Mr. Hill start at scratch together. Mr. 
Hill's unhappy experience of this world had by no 
means predisposed him towards any desire for a con- 
tinuance of existence beyond the grave, and his critical 
tendency of thought had led him to negative rather 
than positive results. Yet his attention had been ar- 
rested by the growing and persistent claims of the sur- 
vivalists, and he felt an intellectual compulsion to ex- 
amine the question whatever his own prepossessions 
might be. The first results are to be seen in "Religion 
and Modern Psychology," where his active mind 
reaches out into the vague but fascinating country be- 
fore it. In another book of the same year, "New Evi- 
dence in Psychical Research," you see these exploring 
tentacles taking their grip on this or that which seemed 
solid, and tugging at it to see if it would indeed stand 
a strain. In the third, "Psychical Investigations," the 
solid points are numerous and stronger. He can tug 
as he will and he cannot shake them. His fourth book, 
"Man in a Spirit," is indirect, dealing less with his 

xvii 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

own experiences and more with those of others, but all 
bearing upon the same thesis. And now in this, the last 
of the series, he goes over the whole ground, shows the 
gradual development from small things to greater 
which marks all true progress, and tells how orthodox 
science, with a few brilliant exceptions, broke every 
rule of science when faced with an entirely new propo- 
sition, while orthodox religion, with the same reser- 
vation, failed to recognise the true root of religion 
from which it had itself grown in the far-off days when 
it was green and full of life. This is the subject of 
Mr. Hill's present book, and no more vital one could 
possibly engage his pen. 

We must admit that the phenomena which first, in 
modern times, gave rise to this line of thought and in- 
vestigation, were insignificant in their nature and 
squalid in their environment. They were trivial, in- 
consequential, absurd, lending themselves readily to 
imitative fraud upon one side and to practical joking 
upon the other, while the credulity of many believers 
sustained the incredulity of their opponents. But 
thoughtful men from the beginning saw that there was 
more behind the movement than could possibly be 
laughed or explained away. The fact that phenomena 
were simulated, and rascals were convicted in the po- 
lice courts as the impostors that they were, did not 
really touch the heart of the question. Such incidents 
might prevent superficial or prejudiced thinkers from 
going farther, and give them some excuse for their 
mental inertia; but an investigator who devoted even 
a little earnest attention to the matter was bound to 
admit that, making every allowance for fraud, there was 



INTRODUCTION xix 

a great residuum which could not possibly be explained 
in such a way. Thus, those who came to scoff remained 
continually to pray. So it was with Professor Hare, of 
Philadelphia, in the earliest days. So also with the 
Dialectical Society of London, who were hostile, or 
at the best neutral, at the outset, and yet presented a 
unanimous report endorsing the physical phenomena. 
So also with Dr. A. Russel Wallace, General Drayson, 
and many other investigators, who began, as Mr. Ar- 
thur Hill did, and, if I may say so, as I myself have 
done, with a marked bias against the whole idea of sur- 
vival. In spite of the doubts of the scientific world 
and the anathema of the creedbound churches, there 
always remained, however, a considerable body of sim- 
ple, earnest folk who took things at their face value, 
were content to admit the existence of fraud if they 
were convinced that the basis was truth, and continued 
in this belief in spite of all criticism. Time has justi- 
fied them. What their own intuitions endorsed has 
been vindicated by a more enlightened science. Here, 
as once before, the humble folk were right, and "the 
wisdom of this world was as foolishness before God". 
All civilised nations have contributed to the sinking 
of these foundations. It is a pure chance that Hydes- 
ville was the seat of the original phenomena which 
caught the public attention, for very similar ones broke 
out within a year or two at Cideville in France, and 
there had been many outbreaks of the same sort in Eng- 
land, the most typical being that in John Wesley's 
house at Epworth. What marked an epoch in America 
was when the young Fox girl, clapping her hands, chal- 
lenged the unseen presence to do the same. Its instant 



xx INTRODUCTION 

response introduced the idea of intelligence into what 
had previously been a mere chaos of noises and move- 
ments. The American mind is open to new impres- 
sions, and probably the cult spread more rapidly there 
than it could have done elsewhere. But the biggest 
brain which turned itself upon this new subject and 
drew others behind it, was not American but French. 
Allan Kardec, with his spiritualist philosophy, dif- 
fered in some details from the Americans, but founded 
his conclusions upon the same phenomena. When the 
whole story comes to be told, however, there is no 
doubt that it is to England that the new branch of 
science owes most, and, indeed, that it is due to Eng- 
land that it can be called a science at all. Cambridge 
University will always be the Mecca of systematic 
psychic investigation, which is the avenue that nearly 
always leads eventually to complete acceptance of the 
spiritual hypothesis. There have seldom, if ever, been 
a more brilliant set of minds than those which engaged 
themselves upon this subject. Frederic Myers and 
Gurney, Oliver Lodge and Hodgson, Sidgwick, 
Butcher, Roden Noel, the two Verralls, Gerald Balfour, 
Andrew Lang, William Barrett; these are some of the 
keen intellects, not all of Cambridge, but all forming 
a circle round the Cambridge nucleus. From this circle 
was born the Society for Psychical Research, and from 
this again such a mass of evidence as has seldom been 
gathered upon any one subject before. An American 
Psychical Research Society is doing good work upon 
the English model ; but it is always in the latter and in 
the great work of Frederic Myers that psychic science 
will find its firmest root. People call aloud for evi- 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

dence who have been too indolent to examine the evi- 
dence already in existence ; but any one who reads even 
a portion of the voluminous reports of the Society, 
should find as much as the most exacting mind could 
require. 

Some small compendium of the evidence such as is 
presented in this volume is the more needful as the gen- 
eral Press is so exceedingly ignorant upon the point. 
The result is that it always approaches each fresh mani- 
festation de novo, as if no such thing had ever been 
heard of before. For example, Sir Oliver Lodge's 
"Raymond" has been continually reviewed as if this 
were some new opinion which he had put forward, in- 
stead of being a restatement in his own case of what 
had already been urged by a thousand before him. The 
same holds good of particular phenomena. Each new 
outbreak is criticised with no reference to the last, and 
no admission of the cumulative weight which succes- 
sive instances must afford. If, for example, an okapi 
had only once been shot in Africa, its existence on the 
evidence of a single sportsman might reasonably be 
doubted. If ten men agreed that they had shot such 
a creature, the evidence would be strong. If fifty had 
done so, it would become convincing. This is common 
sense. Thus it is with such a phenomenon as a noisy 
poltergeist, two cases of which are at the present 
moment under my own observation. Each case, like the 
recent one at Cheriton, is treated in the Press as an iso- 
lated phenomenon. A wider knowledge of the subject 
would teach the critic that there are very many upon 
record, some of them most carefully observed, and that 
all of them agree in certain general characteristics. 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

Thus, as in the case of the okapi, numbers give assur- 
ance, and it is not possible to treat as a delusion that for 
which there are so many witnesses. The overpowering 
strength of the case for survival is not appreciated be- 
cause the evidence has not been in a sufficiently readable 
and condensed form. Such works as this, or as Sir 
William Barrett's excellent "Threshold of the Unseen," 
help to supply the want. 

I have alluded, in an earlier paragraph of these notes, 
to Mr. Arthur HilPs unhappy experience of this life. 
On a recent visit to Bradford I had an opportunity of 
calling upon him, and of realising his remarkable per- 
sonality and the extraordinary conditions under which 
he produces his work. A strong and athletic young 
man, he was suddenly reduced to absolute helplessness 
by a heart-wrench sustained while cycling up a hill, 
and has now spent many years stretched upon his back 
in bed with such physical disabilities that he cannot 
even write as most invalids would write, but has 
to hold the paper up at an angle with one hand while 
he writes with the other. That, in these circumstances, 
he has carried out the course of reading which his tasks 
necessitate, has done so much laborious investigation, 
himself taking verbatim shorthand notes, and has been 
able within a few years to write considerable books, 
besides being the protagonist in many arguments and 
correspondences in the Press, is a most remarkable 
example of human perseverance and adaptability. To 
those who, like myself, take the gravest possible view 
of this movement, and regard it as being a fresh-depar- 
ture in religious thought and experience such as we have 
not had for two thousand years, it seems more than 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

chance that a man who had such qualifications for the 
work, but who was engrossed in other things, should 
have had all else rent so violently from him with the 
result of concentrating him entirely upon the all-im- 
portant task. If these few lines of mine are of any use 
to him, or to the cause which he represents, I shall be 
proud to think that I have been of assistance. 

Arthur Conan Doyle. 



PART I 



SPIRITUALISM 

ITS HISTORY, PHENOMENA 
AND DOCTRINE 



CHAPTER I 

ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM 

THE fundamental principle of spiritualism is that 
human beings survive bodily death, and that oc- 
casionally, under conditions not yet fully understood, 
we can communicate with those who have gone before. 
This belief is not new, but it has been obscured, and 
needs to be re-emphasised if it is true. Religion, in the 
West at least, has always included the doctrine of 
personal survival, and has been friendly or tolerant 
towards communication of a sort — e.g. prayers to saints 
and help from them, and the popular belief in angels, 
ghosts, and what not; but, latterly in particular, official 
Religion has not put any after-death teaching in the 
forefront of its scheme. 

This is comprehensible enough, for the orthodox 
scheme had become incredible. From the intellectual 
side, science had undermined it at two places : first, by 
its establishment of continuity and gradation in nature, 
suggesting similar continuity and gradation in super- 

25 



26 SPIRITUALISM 

nature, instead of a sudden jump to everlasting bliss or 
a sudden plunge to everlasting woe; second, by its ap- 
plication — in that determined truth-search which is it- 
self religious — of higher standards of evidence, more 
rigorous tests, to historical records. And the result of 
this latter process was, that the miraculous element in 
the Bible, not being supported by things generally ob- 
served to happen now, fell into discredit. Even the 
oldest Gospel was not written until many years after 
the events described, and we have none of the originals, 
our oldest MSS. dating from several centuries later. 
Consequently, according to modern standards, the evi- 
dence for Christ's appearances after His death — and if 
Christ be not risen, then is Christian faith vain — was 
seen to be far from coercive. Indeed, some writers de- 
nied even the "historicity" of Jesus; though this school 
can hardly be said to have included any first-class name. 
But doubt as to the reality of the after-death appear- 
ances and other miracles became widespread. 

On the moral side also, the orthodox scheme was dis- 
credited. The idea of an endless hell of unspeakable 
torment as punishment for the sins of a few years, or 
even for erroneous theological opinions, began to shock 
the developed moral sense. It was not just. Still less 
was it reconcilable with belief in a loving Father. At- 
tempts were made to excuse God by saying that He had 
given free will to man, and that the latter could be 
"saved" if he liked; but ( l) if God gave man free will, 
He is ultimately responsible, for He need not have 
given it; (2) a man cannot believe "if he likes"; belief 
is not entirely under the control of the will — it is a 
state of mind resulting from the interplay of mind with 



ANTECEDENTS 27 

its surroundings. In order, then, to retain a God who 
can be loved and worshipped, without the rather comic 
expedient of limiting His power or His goodness, the 
modern mind abandons everlasting punishment. 

Thus the march of events brought forces to bear from 
the sides of both intellect and morals against orthodox 
after-life creeds. The Churches accordingly began to 
leave the question alone and to concern themselves with 
other matters, in which they have done useful work. 
They provide good sermons, helpful on the moral side 
and often spiritually stimulating; they also provide 
music, and serve as foci for many activities which are 
socially beneficial. But the loss of definite belief in 
personal survival has weakened the Churches' appeal. 
Lest a layman's opinion be disallowed, hear what a 
preacher and princinal of a theological college has to 
say on this point : 

Among the reasons for the decay of the influence of the 
Christian pulpit during the past generation, one is undoubtedly 
the fact that the doctrine of immortality has so largely lost 
its place at the heart of the Christian message. Preachers 
nowadays do not concern themselves so much with what hap- 
pens after death as with what happens to us here and now. 
The pains of Hell, the bliss of Heaven, the penalties and 
rewards which await us in the unseen have largely disappeared 
from amongst the incentives and warnings of the religious life, 
nor have any others taken their place. Life is dealt with as 
though it found its sanctions, rewards, and punishments within 
the circle of our earthly experiences, and needed no future life 
to round off its incompleteness, and bring its tremendous issues 
to fruition. 1 

1 Faith and Immortality, by Dr. E. Griffith-Jones. Preface, p. vii. 



28 SPIRITUALISM 

And as to the belief in general, as distinguished from 
the beliefs of preachers, the same writer says : 

I am not sure, indeed, that it would be wrong to say that 
it can now be best described as a vague hope rather than as a 
confident faith of moral urgency and spiritual stimulus. . . .* 
The thought of another existence beyond the grave has receded 
from the foreground of consciousness in the case of religious 
people as well. 2 

Spiritualism, however, brought a true revival. It 
was found that things happened — actual facts amen- 
able to scientific investigation — which required or at 
least justified a belief in the continued existence and 
agency of discarnate human beings. Communications 
seemed to come from them regarding their state, and 
these communications harmonised well with modern 
requirements. Naturally, therefore, these discoveries 
seemed to provide a basis something like the root facts 
of Christianity. Christ brought life and immortality to 
light by rising from the dead and appearing to and 
communicating with His followers. These first believ- 
ers were honest men who had not been sophisticated 
to the extent of disbelieving the unusual; men who 
trusted their senses and believed their report as we do 
in ordinary affairs. So with the early spiritualists. 
They found facts which indicated survival. They 
brought life and immortality to light once more; 
not by one unique instance, but by multitudes of in- 

1 Faith and Immortality, by Dr. E. Griffith-Jones, p. 22. 

3 Ibid., pp. 25-6. Hymns are sung about our future state, "asleep 
within the tomb" — waiting for a dubious resurrection, and we are 
exhorted to "work, for the night is coming." Not much healthy belief 
there. 



ANTECEDENTS 29 

stances, though mostly not of the same order as that 
great early one. The modern phenomena are, for the 
most part, in a lower key than those of the Gospel 
records; but they amply confirm and justify the belief 
which was based on the events there described. These 
phenomena spiritualists make the basis of their philos- 
ophy and religion, as the early Christians did with their 
experiences. 

It may seem strange that we have had to wait nearly 
nineteen hundred years for a recurrence of this kind 
of fact; or, rather, for adequate recognition of it — for 
it is probable that these things have always been hap- 
pening more or less without receiving systematic atten- 
tion. But, there is no doubt a reason for it. Each age 
has its own function in the scheme of evolution, and it 
cannot attend to everything. 

It is only in the fulness of time that each new ad- 
vance is made. The Jews and the Greeks had to teach 
their lessons before we were ready for Bacon and the 
objective method. Then we had to have three hundred 
years of application of the method, to ground us well in 
physical science and the faith in nature's orderliness 
which it teaches, before we could be trusted to direct 
much attention to those difficult residual psychic phe- 
nomena which the early spiritualists discovered or re- 
discovered. * It may be worth while to remind our- 
selves that it was a re-discovery by glancing for a 
moment at the literature of earlier periods. 

The Bible is naturally the first source that occurs to 

1 This point, that science did well to limit itself at first to the physical 
side, is emphasised in the presidential address' of the Right Hon. A. J. 
Balfour to the S.P.R., "Proceedings," Vol. X., and in that of Professor 
Henri Bergson, Vol. XXVI.— translation in Vol. XXVII. 



30 SPIRITUALISM 

us. Almost all modern alleged psychical phenomena 
can be paralleled from the pages of Scripture. Says 
the Rev. H. R. Haweis : 

Take up your Bible and you will find that there is not a 
single phenomenon which is recorded there which does not oc- 
cur at seances to-day. Whether it be lights, sounds, the shak- 
ing of the house, the coming through closed doors, the mighty- 
rushing winds, levitation, automatic writing, the speaking in 
tongues, we are acquainted with all these phenomena; they 
occur every day in London as well as in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles. ... It is incontestable that such things do occur, that 
in the main the phenomena of Spiritualism are reliable, and 
happen over and over again, under test conditions, in the 
presence of witnesses ; and that similar phenomena are re- 
corded in the Bible, which is written for our learning. It is 
not an opinion, not a theory, but a fact. There is chapter and 
verse for it, and this is what has rehabilitated the Bible. The 
clergy ought to be very grateful to Spiritualism for this, for 
they could not have done it themselves. 1 

Samuel referred to inspirational, or even trance, 
speaking when he said in his instructions to Saul : "The 
spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon thee, and 
thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into 
another man," (1 Sam. x. 6) 2 ; and we remember Sam- 
uel's clairvoyance regarding the strayed asses (ix. 
3-20), also that Saul paid him a fee of a quarter of a 
shekel of silver, which might have led to Samuel's ap- 
pearance in the police court if the thing had happened 

1 Address, London Spiritualist Alliance. Wallis's "Spiritualism in 
the Bible," p. 8. 

2 Cf. "Be not anxious beforehand what ye shall speak: but what- 
soever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye 
that speak but the Holy Ghost." (Mark xiii. 11.) 



ANTECEDENTS 31 

in 20th century London. So with Balaam, who saw 
spirits and was a trance speaker. Abraham entertained 
agents, who were probably men, as indeed they are 
called (Gen. xviii. xix.); also the angel who appeared 
to Cornelius is called a young man (Acts x. 30) and 
the same with the angels at the sepulchre of Jesus 
(Luke xxiv. 4). Angel (angelos) means "messenger," 
without any necessary suggestion of non-humanity. 
Jacob wrestled with a man until daybreak (Gen. xxxii. 
24-30). Jesus talked with Moses and Elias on the 
mountain-top, and the spirits were visible to Peter, 
John, and James also (Luke ix. 30-32). Saul of Tar- 
sus saw a great light and heard the memorable voice 
(Acts ix.) Peter had visions both symbolic and direct- 
ly informative (Acts xi. xii.) and was delivered from 
prison by an angel, who, again, was probably a human 
ghost, for when the delivered Peter came to the house 
of Mary, the mother of John, and the maid told those 
within who was at the gate, they would not believe, 
saying: "It is his angel" (Acts xii. 15). These are 
taken at random; it is unnecessary to labour the proof 
that the Bible contains spiritualistic experiences, what- 
ever opinion we may hold of the credibility of this or 
that portion. 

Turning to other books, we find many psychical hap- 
penings, though in the earlier ones they are more in 
the nature of premonitions and the like than of com- 
munications from departed human beings. 1 It is hard- 
ly worth while speculating on the reason for this, the 
accounts being so remote and so scanty. Some would 
perhaps surmise that man has not always been en- 

1 See F. W. H. Myers on Greek Oracles in "Classical Essays." 



32 SPIRITUALISM 

dowed with the potentiality of survival — that in his 
early days he had no soul or that at death it rejoined 
the general psychic mass from which future souls were 
carried out. 1 Be this as it may, many early records are 
of the kind given by Plutarch regarding Dion. 

While this conspiracy was afoot, a strange and dreadful ap- 
parition was seen by Dion. As he sat one evening in a gal- 
lery in his house, alone and thoughtful, hearing a sudden noise 
he turned about, and saw at the end of the colonnade, by 
clear daylight, a tall woman, in her countenance and garb like 
one of the tragical Furies, with a broom in her hand, sweep- 
ing the floor. Being amazed and extremely affrighted, he 
sent for some of his friends, and told them what he had seen, 
entreating them to stay with him and keep him company all 
night; for he was excessively discomposed and alarmed, fear- 
ing that if he were left alone the spectre would again appear 
to him. He saw it no more. But a few days after, his only 
son, being almost grown up to man's estate, upon some dis- 
pleasure and pet he had taken upon a childish and frivolous 
occasion, threw himself headlong from the top of the house 
and broke his neck. 2 

In the Mneid, however, we come across several nar- 
ratives of definitely spiritualistic character; and, though 
the Mneid is poetry and not history or science, it is not 
entirely fantastic poetry, and we may suppose that the 
spiritualistic stories were believed not only by people 
in general but by the poet also. They are quite in line 
with modern experiences, and it is probable enough that 
Virgil had actual knowledge of well-authenticated ac- 
counts of such things happening in his own time and 

1 Such "achieved" immortality is somewhat in line with the late Old 
Testament belief that only the righteous survived death. 

2 "Lives," iii., p. 368, Everyman Ed., Life of Dion. 



ANTECEDENTS 33 

country. He describes Hector's appearing to iEneas 
and warning him to flee at once, for the foes are on the 
ramparts and Troy is tumbling from her topmost spire. 
This was in a dream ; but, on obeying the order to flee, 
^Eneas soon afterwards has a full-blown hallucination 
which is "evidential." Carrying his father on his 
shoulders, and leading the little boy lulus, iEneas loses 
his wife Creusa in the haste and confusion of the 
flight; he turns back alone, calling her name in frenzy, 
and is met by her ghost, which tells him of her fate and 
of his own future. 

As I was seeking her, and unceasingly raving through the 
houses of the city, the hapless phantom and shade of Creusa 
herself appeared to me before my eyes, and her form larger 
than I had known it. 1 I was amazed, and my hair stood up, 
and my voice clung to my throat. Then she thus began to 
address me, and to remove my cares by these words: "What 
avails it to give way so far to frenzied grief, my sweet hus- 
band? These events happen not without the will of heaven, 
nor is it permitted you to convey hence Creusa as your part- 
ner. . . . And now farewell, and preserve your love for our 
common son." 

Earlier in Book I. is the account of Dido's dream, in 
which her dead husband appears and tells her the de- 

1 This appearance of the phantom as larger than life may have some 
significance. The same thing is said in Plutarch's Life of Caesar, of the 
phantom which appeared to Brutus — though it is not definitely stated 
that the ghost was Caesar's or, indeed, human — and Mr. Edward Car- 
penter has said it of the form of his mother, which he saw regularly 
for some time after her death ("My Days and Dreams," p. 106). 
Also, it is a notable fact that at the sittings described in my book, 
"Psychical Investigations," the medium often described people as being 
bigger than they were in life, though I attributed it to comparison 
with his own stature. However, it is curious to find the same thing 
cropping up so frequently, and it fits in with the Theosophical idea 
of the astral body being larger than the physical one. 



34 SPIRITUALISM 

tails of his murder by Pygmalion. This reminds us of 
the Pot of Basil story, which Keats versified from Boc- 
caccio's prose. Lorenzo, being enamoured of Isabella, 
was murdered by her brothers and buried in a wood; 
but he appeared to her in a dream and correctly told 
where to find his body. 

Isabel, my sweet! 

Red whortle berries droop above my head, 
And a large flint stone weighs upon my feet; 

Around me beeches and high chestnuts shed 
Their leaves and prickly nuts ; a sheepfold bleat 

Comes from beyond the river to my bed. 

A similar case is described by Pliny the Younger, an 
acute and learned lawyer of the first century of our era. 
It did not come within his own experience, but the evi- 
dence impressed him, and we may assume that he had 
the story from people whom he considered trustworthy. 
It concerned an apparition which led the percipient to 
a certain part of a courtyard and then vanished. The 
place was marked, and afterwards dug up, when a 
human body was found. This being properly buried, 
the haunting (for it was a case of persistent appear- 
ance) ceased. 1 

There is a curious and rather humorous similar story 
in an Egyptian Papyrus at Leyden, in which the writer 
of a letter "complains bitterly of the persistent annoy- 
ance caused to him by his deceased wife." ("L'epoux 

1 For many references to classical phantoms, see "Greek and Roman 
Ghost Stories," by L. Collison Morley (London: Simpkin, Marshall 
and Company, Limited, 1912). 



ANTECEDENTS 35 

se plaint des mauvais procedes de Fepouse defunte dont 
a ce qu'il parait la mort ne Fa pas suffisamment de- 
barasse": M. Chabas, Introduction to the Papyri of 
Ley den, p. 71.) 1 Perhaps she had a legitimate griev- 
ance, as had Dido, who threatened to haunt iEneas : — 

"My shade shall be with you wherever you are." 2 

And it is clear that something almost startlingly like 
modern spiritualism was in existence in the first cen- 
turies of our era. Porphyry describes spirits as mani- 
festing in many ways, often through an entranced "re- 
cipient" ; and he says that if conditions were not good 
the spirit would himself warn his auditors that he would 
make incorrect statements. A small confined space was 
essential to good results, in order "that the influence 
should not be too widely diffused." There was singing 
and sometimes darkness, as in sittings nowadays for 
materialisation and the direct voice. In trance speech 
the spirit alludes to the medium in the third person, as 
"the mortal" or "the recipient"; and at some sittings 
the medium was bound with withes and enveloped in 
fine linen ; perhaps in order to eliminate fraud. Certain- 
ly the spirits were believed to appear sometimes in vis- 
ible and tangible form; and their precise nature had 
been in dispute since the days of Pythagoras, "who 
conjectured that the apparition was an emanation from 
the spirit, but not, strictly speaking, the spirit itself," a 

1 "Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by 
the Religion of Ancient Egypt." (Hibbert Lectures), by P. Le Page 
Renouf, p. 154 (London: Williams and Norgate, 1884). 

a "iEneid," bk. iv. 



36 SPIRITUALISM 

conjecture supported by modern research. Unfortu- 
nately a good deal of our information concerning Neo- 
Platonic spiritualism comes through hostile Church 
Fathers such as Eusebius ; but it is clear that they were 
unable to dismiss the phenomena as unreal. 1 

Similarly in Egyptian literature there is ample proof 
of belief in survival, and very full and curious accounts 
are given of the wanderings of the spirit after death. 
In China there is evidence of the same belief, with an- 
cestor-worship and communication, for it was customary 
to tell the departed any news that might be interesting 
to them. There is less evidence of communication from 
the other side, but this has probably also been much 
practised, for trance addresses and the use of a sort of 
planchette are common among the Taoists; and a mis- 
sionary friend of the present writer has attended Taoist 
services by favour of his acquaintance with a Taoist 
priest for whom he has a high regard — and believes that 
the trance addresses do often control supernormally-ac- 
quired knowledge. Whether the control purports to 
be a human being or some non-human intelligence, is 
not always clear. 

A sort of ouija-system was in vogue in early Greece, 
for Ammianus Marcellinus tells of "some Greek culti- 
vators of theurgy" who ascertained the future by sus- * 
pending a ring by a fine linen thread, held apparently 
by the officiating person after due purification, over 
the characters of the alphabet set in a circle. The ring 
darted out to the letters required, and words were spelt 

1 Myers on Greek Oracles in "Classical Essays," pp. 83 and fol- 
lowing. 



ANTECEDENTS 37 

out. 1 The people concerned were prosecuted, no doubt 
as a heretical sect or from motives of fear, as in our 
own witchcraft persecutions of two or three hundred 
years ago. Similarly with some important personages 
in Rome who seem to have had seances for materialisa- 
tion. They were subjected to police supervision. The 
majority naturally tend to tyrannise over the minority, 
and true discovery is often thus suppressed for the 
time; for each discoverer has a whole conservative 
world against him, which thinks it knows already that 
such things cannot be, or, if they can, that they ought 
not. This trait of human nature is probably a sufficient 
explanation of the smallness of the literary evidence for 
induced psychical phenomena. One cannot be blamed 
for seeing a ghost; it simply cannot be helped if the 
ghost thinks fit to appear; but it is different with 
seances. So the spiritualist of those early days would 
for the most part keep silence about his doings, as many 
find it best to do even now. 

With reference to the point that the early communi- 
cations in China, Greece, etc., seem to be from gods 
(e.g. in the oracles) rather than from human beings, 
it is to be noted that the terminology is not very exact. 
The Neo-Platonists believed in a graduated hierarchy 
of beings. Even Plutarch held this notion of many 
grades between God and man — it being absurd to sup- 
pose no mean between two such extremes — and he 
seems uncertain what to call these communicating 
spirits. He names them Genii or Daimons, but at the 
same time he speaks of them as "having first been men" ; 
so it is possible enough that, in old accounts, communi- 

J Howitt's "History of the Supernatural," vol. i., p. 366. 



38 SPIRITUALISM 

cation from a "god" may mean communication from a 
human being who has passed on to the higher state. In 
old Jewish days the teraphim were ancestral images — 
though regarded as images of Yahwe later 1 — and they 
were consulted as oracles (2 Kings xxiii. 24; Exod. xxi. 
2 — 6). Often where "god" is written, the spirit of an 
ancestor is meant, for the dead, when invoked, were 
termed elohim (1 Sam. xxviii. 13). Or, as in oracles 
giving clairvoyance rather than communications — e.g. 
the famous case of Croesus, — the supernormal faculty 
may have been exerted by the priestess's own subliminal 
self. 

In these earlier cases, it is impossible to make out 
exactly what happened. For example, there was an 
epidemic of trance-speaking, convulsions, ecstasy, etc., 
among the Ursuline nuns of Loudun, in 1632-4, and 
the Mother Superior herself was affected, which indi- 
cates that it was not merely a case of a few hysterical 
girls. The controlling agencies confessed themselves 
to be devils, and a certain cure was burnt alive, as the 
bewitcher, in April, 1634. But the accounts are anony- 
mous, and the writers were under the influence of theo- 
logical bias, as were the sufferers. 2 

Similarly with the outbreak of inspirational phenom- 
ena among the peasantry of the Cevennes in 1707, the 
devotees of St. Medard in 1730 and onwards, and the 
automatic utterances of the Irvingites. In all these 

1 "Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life," by R. H. 
Charles, D.D. (A. and C. Black, 1899), p. 23. 

a "La Veritable Histoire des Diables de Loudun," translated and 
edited by Edmund Goldsmid, London, 1887. "Histoire des Diables de 
Loudun," Amsterdam, 1693. 



ANTECEDENTS 39 

cases it was claimed that foreign languages were spoken 
by persons possessing no normal knowledge of them, 
and this was reckoned to be proof of diabolic or celes- 
tial agency. But the evidence does not prove that 
any recognised foreign language was spoken to an unac- 
countable extent, and it is probable that all these are 
cases of genuine automatism — a dreaming aloud, with 
the resources of subliminal memory available, and pro- 
ducing results sufficient to astonish a credulous public. 
Moreover, many of these "foreign languages" were 
probably not languages at all, but merely an assemblage 
of sounds, as in many trance mediums of a later date. 
As to the Irvingite "tongues," Robert Baxter first be- 
lieved in their celestial origin, but finally thought them 
demoniac. He apparently overshot the truth in both 
directions ; also, in assuming the necessity of any super- 
human agency at all. 

Similarly again with Dr. Dee's crystal-gazing experi- 
ments with Kelly in the sixteenth century. Kelly was 
probably a fraud, for he was certainly a doubtful char- 
acter; but in any case there seems to have been no 
claim that the spirits were those of human beings. They 
were said to be Gabriel, Uriel, and other angels, and 
they mostly made predictions, which did not always 
come true. 

But it is unnecessary to labour the point by quoting 
further cases, which could be found in abundance in 
the "Lives of the Saints" and other literature, for it 
will, no doubt, be admitted that the belief in survival 
of the human spirit, and even of communication there- 
with, particularly in dreams, is as old as the belief 



40 SPIRITUALISM 

that there are human spirits at all. 1 Naturally the evi- 
dential quality of such records as we possess is far be- 
low what we now require, and they cannot be held to 
prove the truth of the belief. But the fact of the be- 
lief existing, and the nature of the records, have a 
certain supporting value for our modern instances and 
theories. 

1 There is a large collection of data in Howitt's "History of the 
Supernatural." 



CHAPTER II 



SWEDENBORG 



SUPERNORMAL experiences, then, had probably 
been common enough all along, but the times were 
not ripe for the systematic study of them. Occasionally 
a person of outstanding ability of one sort or another 
had had them — as Socrates with his guiding or restrain- 
ing voice, and Joan of Arc — but the fact had only a so- 
to-speak local significance. The experiences did not 
fit into any scheme ; they represented the incursion of 
another order, and were affairs of religion. Science did 
not exist. Then came Tasso, a great man, who held 
animated conversations with spirits, "with an earnest- 
ness and power which left no doubt of his own belief 
in the reality of his impressions" ; but Tasso was a poet, 
and, therefore, might safely be considered more or less 
mad. Also the time was still a little early. It was 
required that a learned and scientific man should have 
such experiences, in an age becoming scientific. In due 
time the man came. 

Emanuel Swedenborg was born in Stockholm on 
January 29th, 1688, was educated at Upsala, and 
travelled for four years in England, Holland, France, 
and Germany. During this period he made many in- 
ventions, notably "a sort of ship in which a man can 
go below the surface of the sea, and do great damage to 

41 



42 SPIRITUALISM 

the fleet of an enemy." * After his return he was ap* 
pointed Assessor in the Swedish College of Mines. He 
wrote books on algebra, giving the first account in Swed- 
ish of the differential and integral calculus ; on a mode 
of finding the longitude at sea by the moon ; on decimal 
money and measures ; on the motion and position of the 
earth and planets ; on the depth of the sea, and greater 
force of the tides in the ancient world ; on dock, sluices, 
and salt works; and on chemistry as atomic geometry. 
He was offered, in 1724, a professorship of mathemat- 
ics, but declined from a dislike of non-practical science. 
For many years he then devoted himself to his work, 
and to the study of mining and smelting metallic ores, 
visiting Liege in order to study the rolling methods em- 
ployed there, and endeavouring to put the iron-mining 
of Sweden on a better basis. After some philosophical 
writing, dissatisfied with his results, he studied anatomy 
and physiology, and wrote books thereon. At the age 
of fifty- four, Swedenborg was probably one of the most 
learned men alive; taking "learning" as meaning ac- 
quaintance with the universe as then known. One 
small indication of this is the fact that the then Presi- 
dent of our Royal Society (Sir Hans Sloane) invited 
him to become a corresponding member. 

Then a curious thing happened. In 1743 he had a 
spiritual illumination, with tremblings, voices, lights, 
etc., and began to have access to the spiritual world, 
or to think he had. During the years 1749-56 he pub- 

1 William White's "Life of Swedenborg," p. 29. He also invented 
a new stove, a magazine air-gun, methods of salt manufacture, and 
a sort of pianola; and drew plans for a flying-machine and the 
construction of docks ("Transactions of the International Swedenborg 
Congress, 1910," p. 5). 



SWEDENBORG 43 

lished in London his "Arcana Ccelestia," in four vol- 
umes quarto, and, later, other works containing the ex- 
position of his doctrines, which were mainly concerned 
with a spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, and 
particularly of Genesis and Exodus. Much of this 
seems fanciful, but the thought is always systematic, 
and no one can reasonably say that Swedenborg was 
insane. Moreover, he was shrewd in worldly affairs, 
affable in society, and discussed politics and finance in 
the Swedish Diet like a man of the world for a score 
of years after he began to write and publish his theo- 
logical works, which number about forty volumes. 

But this exposition of the Scripture, received as he 
thought direct from the Lord and considered by him to 
be the important part of his work, is less interesting 
to us than his spiritual experiences, which are mostly 
described in his "Spiritual Diary," whence he copied 
extracts occasionally into his theological works. These 
experiences were admittedly of such a character that 
in an ordinary man they would have sufficed to qualify 
him for an asylum. Swedenborg talked, or thought 
he talked, with Luther, Calvin, St. Augustine, St. Paul 
— arguing theological questions with them, and dis- 
agreeing violently with the last-named — and many 
others, including "one who, it was given me to under- 
stand, was Cicero." All this, though not provably hal- 
lucinatory, is at least perilous stuff, and the Sweden- 
borgians have done wisely not to base much on it. 1 
But there are a few incidents on record which are "evi- 
dential," and these may reasonably give us pause be- 

1 He also wrote automatically, heard clairaudiently, and "saw writ- 
ings and the very words of the writing," even with eyes shut. 



44 SPIRITUALISM 

fore deciding for a subjective explanation of the 
seer's experiences. 

For example, there was his clairvoyance of the 
Stockholm fire. In September, 1759, Swedenborg was 
one of a party of sixteen guests at the house of Mr. 
William Castel, at Gottenburg (three hundred miles 
from Stockholm), where he had arrived from England 
at 4 p.m. 

About six o'clock Swedenborg went out, and returned to the 
company quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dangerous 
fire had just broken out in Stockholm, at the Sodermalm (Got- 
tenburg is about fifty German miles from Stockholm), and 
that it was spreading very fast. He said that the house of 
one of his friends, whom he named, was already in ashes ; and 
that his own was in danger. At eight o'clock, after he had 
been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, "Thank God! the fire 
is extinguished ; the third door from my house !" This news 
occasioned great commotion throughout the whole city. ... It 
was announced to the Governor the same evening. On Sunday 
morning Swedenborg was summoned to the Governor, who 
questioned him concerning the disaster. Swedenborg described 
the fire precisely, how it had begun and in what manner it had 
ceased, and how long it had continued. On the same day the 
news spread through the city, and as the Governor thought it 
worthy of attention, the consternation was considerably in- 
creased; because many were in trouble on account of their 
friends and property. . . . On Monday evening a messenger 
arrived at Gottenburg, who was despatched by the Board of 
Trade during the time of the fire. In the letters brought by 
him, the fire was described precisely in the manner stated by 
Swedenborg. On Tuesday morning a Royal Courier arrived 
at the Governor's with the melancholy intelligence of the fire, 
of the losses which it had occasioned, and of the houses it had 
damaged and ruined, not in the least differing from that which 



SWEDENBORG 45 

Swedenborg had given at the very time when it happened ; for 
the fire was extinguished at eight o'clock. 1 

This, of course, is evidence of some supernormal fac- 
ulty, but not of communication with the dead. The 
best piece of evidence for this latter in Swedenborg's 
case is the following story, which was verified by a 
friend of Kant's, who was on the spot: 

Madame Herteville (Marteville), the widow of the Dutch 
Ambassador in Stockholm, some time after the death of her 
husband, was called upon by Croon, a goldsmith, to pay for a 
silver service which her husband had purchased from him. 
The widow was convinced that her late husband had been 
much too precise and orderly not to have paid this debt, yet 
she was unable to find this receipt. In her sorrow, and be- 
cause the amount was considerable, she requested Mr. Sweden- 
borg to call at her house. After apologising to him for 
troubling him, she said that if, as all people say, he possessed 
the extraordinary gift of conversing with the souls of the 
departed, he would perhaps have the kindness to ask her hus- 
band how it was about the silver service. Swedenborg did not 
at all object to comply with her request. ^hree days after- 
wards, the said lady had company at her nouse for coffee. 
Swedenborg called and in his cool way informed her that he 
had conversed with her husband. The debt had been paid 
several months before his decease, and the receipt was in a 
bureau in the room upstairs. The lady replied that the bureau 
had been quite cleared out, and that the receipt was not found 
among all the papers. Swedenborg said that her husband 
had described to him how, after pulling out the left-hand 

1 Borowsky's "Darstellung des Lebens und Charakters Immanuel 
Kants," Konigsberg, 1804, pp. 211-25. Translation in "Dreams of a 
Spirit Seer," pp. 158-9 (Appendix). Letter from Kant to Charlotte 
von Knobloch. Kant was wrong about the date; the fire occurred on 
July 29, 1759. But the evidence seems strong that the clairvoyance 
was really contemporary with the fire (Tafel's "Documents Concern- 
ing Swedenborg," vol. ii., part i., p. 628). 



46 SPIRITUALISM 

drawer, a board would appear, which required to be drawn 
out, when a secret compartment would be disclosed, containing 
his private Dutch correspondence as well as the receipt. Upon 
hearing this description the whole company arose and accom- 
panied the lady into the room upstairs. The bureau was 
opened; they did as they were directed; the compartment was 
found, of which no one was ever known before; and to the 
great astonishment of all, the papers were discovered there, 
in accordance with his description. 1 

These are quoted, not as proof of Swedenborg's 
powers — for in a matter of this sort we require much 
more than one or two instances — but to show that there 
was at least evidence sufficient to impress a mind of 
the calibre of Kant's, after careful sifting; for Kant 
went to a good deal of trouble to verify the accounts 
as far as possible. It is true that he modified or re- 
tracted his favourable opinion later, but it was on 
metaphysical grounds of the a priori impossibility of 
knowing anything about either pre-existence or post- 
existence. So long as he contemplated the facts with- 
out a priori prejudice, he believed. Indeed, in his 
"Lectures on Psychology," he adopted a Swedenbor- 
gian view of man as existing in two worlds at the 
same time, and it is on record that he wished his half- 
hostile "Dreams of a Spirit Seer" to be omitted from 
a collection of his minor writings. 2 

While agreeing that Swedenborg probably had gen- 
uine supernormal powers, and that his works, or many 

1 "Dreams of a Spirit Seer," Appendix, pp. 157-8. There is a rather 
similar test case in Jung Stilling's "Theory of Pneumatology," p. 92. 
The man who received the proof from Swedenborg was an intimate 
friend of Stilling's. 

2 Kant's "Werke," Edition Hartenstein, Band viii., 812. 



SWEDENBORG 47 

of them, display much originality and are worthy of 
study, we cannot but admit that some of the entries 
in his Spiritual Diary are very incoherent, and sug- 
gest mental disorder; e.g. "I seemed to move quickly 
down a staircase. I only lightly touched the steps, but 
reached the bottom safely. There came a voice from 
my dear father: 'You are creating alarm, Emanuel!' 
He said it was wrong, but would let it pass. This 
denotes that yesterday I had made too free use of the 
cross of Christ." l But the Diary was not written for 
publication, and such things may have had meanings 
that were rational enough to the writer. 

And there is the story, repeated by John Wesley, of 
Swedenborg' s stripping and rolling in the mire, as de- 
scribed by Brockmer, with whom he was lodging. 2 
But it turns out that Brockmer was not an eye-witness, 
but was only repeating hearsay; moreover, he after- 
wards denied having said anything of the kind to Mr. 
Wesley. And our other informant, Father Mathesius, 
who also bases on Brockmer, was an opponent of 
Swedenborg, and obviously an unreliable person. 3 The 
story may therefore be dismissed as at least not proven. 

It has also been said that Swedenborg was all intel- 
lect and little love; a man with "a small heart under 
the government of a large head." But here again there 
is another side. We are told that his landlady's chil- 
dren were fonder of him than of their own parents; 
and if, as it partly appears, this was largely due to 

» 

1 White's "Life of Swedenborg," p. 124. 
'Ibid., p. 131. 

8 R. L. Tafel's "Documents Concerning Swedenbo-g," vol. ii., part 2, 
pp. 584-612. 



48 SPIRITUALISM 

Swedenborg's liberality in buying sweets for them, it 
was his wisdom rather than his affection that was at 
fault. And on the aesthetic side we may note that 
he was fond of music, and in his early days frequently 
acted as deputy organist at his father's church. 

In worldly matters he was shrewd and thrifty as to 
expenditure on himself; simple in tastes, living largely 
on bread, milk, and coffee — of which he was very fond 
— and apparently tasting wine only twice in his life. 
He must have spent more money on the production of 
his books, which fell almost dead from the press, than 
on his own sustenance and pleasure. On the whole, 
even if he did lose mental balance temporarily — which 
may happen to anyone in fever, such as he is said to 
have been suffering from on one occasion — we cannot 
reasonably attribute continued madness to him during 
the next twenty-seven years of his life. He usually 
dated his seership from 1745, regarding the experiences 
of 1743 and 1744 as preparation. 

Although brought up in orthodox theology, Sweden- 
borg was so deeply versed in science (for those times), 
and so cognisant that the physical universe is one Uni- 
verse, in which everything is related to everything else, 
that it was natural to him to extend this principle of 
continuity and relation to the spiritual world. And 
his personal experiences confirmed this. He saw the 
next stage to be very like this one. Souls at death do 
not become completely good or completely bad at 
once ; they do not go straight to heaven or hell. They 
enter at death an intermediate state which he calls the 
World of Spirits. The period of their stay there is not 
fixed: 



SWEDENBORG 49 

Some merely enter it and are immediately either taken up 
into heaven or cast down into hell; some remain there only a 
few weeks, and others several years; but none remain more 
than thirty years. These differences in the time of their stay 
depend upon the correspondence or want of correspondence of 
their inner and outer minds. 1 

The first state of man after death is like his state in the 
world, because his life is still external. He has therefore a 
similar face, speech, and disposition, thus a similar moral and 
civil life ; so that he thinks that he is still in the world, unless 
he pays close attention to the experiences he meets with, or 
remembers what was said to him by the angels when he was 
raised up, namely, that he is now a spirit. . . . 

All are recognised by their friends, relatives, and acquaint- 
ances when they first come into the other life, and they talk 
and afterwards associate with them according to their intimacy 
in the world. I have frequently heard those who have come 
from the world rejoicing at seeing their friends again, and 
their friends also rejoicing at their arrival. . . . 

Almost all are anxious to know whether they will go to 
heaven, and many believe that they will, because they have 
led a moral and civil life in the world ; they do not reflect that 
both the wicked and the good lead a similar life outwardly, 
doing good to others in the same manner, going to church, 
hearing sermons and praying; and they have no idea that 
outward deeds and acts of worship are of no avail, but only 
the internal states of mind from which the external acts pro- 
ceed. 2 

No one in the spiritual world is allowed to think 
and will in one way, and to speak and act in another. 
There must be complete sincerity, and the first stage 
for most spirits is a training to this. 

1 "Heaven and Hell," p. 218 (Everyman edition). 
7 Op. cit, pp. 266-7-8. 



50 SPIRITUALISM 

All who have lived a good life in the world, and acted con- 
scientiously, being such as have acknowledged the Divine 
Being and loved Divine truths, especially those who have 
applied them in life, when they are brought into the state of 
their inner minds, feel as if they had been awakened out of 
sleep, and like those who pass from darkness into light. The 
light of heaven, or interior wisdom, illumines their thought, 
and goodness, or interior affection, inspires their deeds. 
Heaven itself flows into their thoughts and affections with an 
interior blessedness and delight, of which they before knew 
nothing. . . , 1 

But the state of those who have lived an evil life in the 
world, who have had no conscience, and have consequently 
denied the Divine Being, is altogether different. . . . For they 
are then in a state of freedom to act according to the thoughts 
of their will, being separated from the outward circumstances 
which restrained and checked them in the world. In a word, 
they are deprived of rationality, because the reason which they 
possessed in the world did not reside in their inner minds. . . . 
Such being their character when they are in this second state, 
they are brought back at short intervals into the state of their 
external life, and then to the recollection of what they had 
done when they were in the state of their internal life. Some 
are then ashamed, and acknowledge that they have been insane ; 
but some are not ashamed, and some are indignant because 
they are not allowed to remain always in the state of their 
external life. 2 

Man's character remains essentially what it was 
while he was in the world. The will, however, is the 
essential thing, not the actions. Those with good wills 
are separated in the second stage from those with bad 
wills, and the latter proceed to the infernal societies 
to which they are allied. The good enter a third stage 

1 "Heaven and Hell," p. 273. 3 Op. cit., pp. 273-4. 



SWEDENBORG 51 

of instruction, which is a preparation for heaven. The 
instructors are angels — i.e. advanced human spirits, 
and "the heathen are instructed by angels who had been 
of their own nation." * Children who die are brought 
up and instructed in heaven or an advanced part of 
the World of Spirits, not being in need of much purga- 
tion. 

There are innumerable societies and grades in heaven, 
but there are three main divisions — the inmost or ce- 
lestial, the middle or spiritual, and the lowest or nat- 
ural heaven, corresponding to divisions in the mind of 
man, and in each of these heavens there is an exterior 
and an interior region, corresponding to the Under- 
standing and the Will in the individual mind. 

It is not commonly possible for spirits in one heaven 
to communicate with those in another, but it occurs 
sometimes : 

I have also seen others who were permitted to descend from 
a higher heaven, and they were deprived of their wisdom to 
such an extent that they did not know the character of their 
own heaven. It is otherwise when the Lord, as is frequently 
the case, raises angels from a lower heaven into a higher one, 
that they may see its glory; for then they are previously pre- 
pared and are encompassed by intermediate angels through 
whom they have communication with those among whom they 
come. 2 

The smaller heavenly societies consist of some hun- 
dreds of angels, others of some thousands, and some 
of myriads. Many angels live apart in separate houses 
and families; these are more immediately under the 

^'Heaven and Hell," p. 282. a Op. cit., p. 16. 



52 SPIRITUALISM 

Divine guidance of the Lord, and are the best of the 
angels. Space is represented by difference in goodness 
or the state of the spirits* love. Those are far apart 
who differ much, those are near who differ little, for 
similarity brings them together. Moreover, those who 
resemble each other in goodness know each other, al- 
though they never met before. 1 

The hells correspond to the heavens, and are made 
up of many societies. They are ruled by the general 
outpouring of Divine Good and Truth from the heav- 
ens, which checks and restrains the effort which issues 
from the hells as a whole, and angels are appointed to 
restrain the insanities and disturbances. Punishments 
are according to the nature of the evil. But God "never 
turns away His face from men, never drives them from 
His presence, never casts anyone into hell and is never 
angry with anyone." 2 Evil is bound up with its own 
punishment, and they cannot be separated. And the 
root of all evil is self-love. 

As to the location of the Spiritual Worlds, Sweden- 
borg affirms their non-spatiality. They are conditions, 
not places. Change of place is merely change of state. 
One person becomes present to another when he in- 
tensely desires his presence, for thus he concentrates 
his thought upon him and puts himself in his state of 
mind. Conversely, aversion removes one person from 
another. Thus when several are together they see each 
other as long as they agree, and lose sight of each other 
when they disagree. 3 But though this is so, the ap- 
pearances are spatial, for there are hills and valleys 

1 "Heaven and Hell," p. 19. ■ Op. cit., p. 303. 8 Op. cit., p. 83. 



SWEDENBORG 53 

and other natural features. The spirits have spiritual 
bodies — which in the good and intelligent are brighter 
than the noonday sun on earth — and they have gar- 
ments and live in houses. The garments represent the 
mind. The less intelligent in heaven are clothed in 
white but of less brilliance. The still less intelligent 
have garments of different colours. But the angels of 
the inmost heaven are naked. 

The houses in heaven are like earthly ones but more 
beautiful. They have many chambers, and courts with 
gardens. There are cities, with streets and squares; 
architecture like ours, but beyond it; for it is from 
heaven that we derive our own pale copies. The orna- 
mentation was such as "I lack both knowledge and 
words to describe." The highest angels live on moun- 
tain tops, others lower down according to the state of 
their minds. 

All institutions, says Emerson, are the lengthened 
shadow of one man. Thus the followers of Sweden- 
borg shut the door which he opened, discouraging any 
communication with the other world on the part of 
anyone else, no doubt lest heterodoxy should arise. 
But Swedenborg himself did not claim uniqueness or 
forbid others to seek the experience given to him: 

Man was so created that during his life on earth amongst 
men he might, at the same time, also live in heaven amongst 
angels, and during his life amongst angels he might, at the 
same time, also live on earth amongst men ; so that heaven and 
earth might be together, and might form one; men knowing 
what is in heaven, and angels what is in the world. 1 

1 "Arcana Coelestia," Howitt's "History of the Supernatural," vol. 
11., p. 391. 



54 SPIRITUALISM 

This indicates that Swedenborg believed all human 
beings to be potentially clairvoyant, somewhat as the 
later Theosophists teach. He did not claim the unique- 
ness which some of his followers have ascribed to him. 

And as a useful corrective to a possibly excessive 
tendency to accept a great man's dicta unquestioningly, 
it is interesting to compare one prophet with another 
and to note contradictions. Swedenborg was emphatic 
that all the angels had first been human beings. Jacob 
Boehme was equally certain that God created angels 
direct, out of Himself ("Aurora," p. 44). This ques- 
tion of the nature of angels was a much disputed one 
among the learned of the Middle Ages. As against 
Swedenborg, it would certainly seem hasty to decide 
that in this immense universe there are no spiritual be- 
ings who have not lived in flesh-bodies on the speck of 
matter which we call our Earth. It would perhaps 
be more consonant with what we know of nature if 
we assumed the existence of beings of an infinite num- 
ber of grades and kinds. 



CHAPTER III 

CONFLUENCE OF SWEDENBORGIANISM AND MESMERISM 

IN AMERICA 

AS with sporadic apparitions, the fact of alleged 
trance and apparent intromission into the spirit- 
ual world, or at least extension of normal vision, is not 
uncommon. Swedenborg was not unique. The records 
of such experiences are extensive both in space and time. 
A typical case is that of Hermotimus of Clazomene, 
whose soul was wont to forsake its body and to bring 
back intelligence of many things at a distance which 
none could know but such as were present, during which 
time his body lay half dead; until his enemies burnt 
it, and thus cut off the retreat of the returning soul. 1 
The Khond priest authenticates his claim to office by 
remaining from one to fourteen days in a dreamy state, 
caused by one of his souls being away in the divine 
presence. 2 The Turanian shaman lies in lethargy while 
his soul departs to bring hidden wisdom from the land 
of spirits, 3 and the same sort of thing occurs among 
the North American Indians. Sometimes we are spe- 

1 Pliny the Elder, "Hist. Nat.," vii., 53. 

a Tylor's "Primitive Culture," p. 396. Ref. to Macpherson, "India," 
p. 103. 

z Ibid. Ref. to Ruhs, "Finland," p. 303; Castren, "Finn. Myth.," 
p. 134; Bastian, "Mensch," ii., p. 319. See also section on "The 
Nature of the Soul" in J. G. Frazer's "Golden Bough," vol. i., 
p. 247 and following. 

55 



56 SPIRITUALISM 

cifically told that the trance is deep and memory not 
continuous ; for Cicero mentions that when the revela- 
tions are being given, someone must be present to 
record them, since "these sleepers do not retain any 
recollection of it." * 

After Swedenborg's death in 1772, it was natural 
that, in spite of his followers' attempt to maintain his 
uniqueness, there should be others with similar expe- 
riences. We hear, for example, of a Mrs. Lindquist, 
wife of a gardener who, in Stockholm in 1788, was con- 
trolled in trance by her deceased infant daughter and 
another young child. These spirits gave accounts of their 
state and expounded the Scriptures, adhering closely to 
the Swedenborgian views on both. Other somnambules 
and controls delivered themselves to a like effect. 2 Then 
arose Anton Mesmer (1743-1815), a Viennese doctor 
who settled in Paris and created a great sensation in 
1778 by his magnetic (or as we should now say hyp- 
notic or suggestive) cures. His disciples de Puysegur, 
Petetin, Deleuze, and others continued the study, and 
societies for the investigation of "Animal Magnetism" 
sprang up in many towns. As a rule, no transcenden- 
tal theory was adopted, the explanation being the me- 
chanical one of some "fluid" proceeding from the oper- 
ator; and the main interest was in the cure of disease, 
the entranced person being often able to diagnose not 
only his own ailments but also those of others, and to 
prescribe for them. Some investigators, however, be- 
lieved that in a very deep trance the soul of the Sub- 
mit), iii., "de Divin." 

a Podmore: "Modern Spiritualism: a History and a Criticism," 
i., pp. 76-7. 



IN AMERICA 57 

ject was partially released from the limitations due 
to the body, and Jung Stilling (1740-1817) may be 
regarded as the most notable of those who accepted 
a superhuman source of some of the somnambules' com- 
munications. Jung Stilling was an able and hard- 
working doctor, afterwards Professor of Political 
Economy at Marburg and Heidelberg. Some of his 
views have still a plausible sound, as when he says that 
"Light, electric, magnetic, galvanic matter, and ether 
appear to be all one and the same body, under different 
modifications. This light or ether is the element which 
connects soul and body and the spiritual and material 
world together." * His book is mainly a collection of 
ghost stories of low evidential standard, and his doc- 
trine is Swedenborgian, with a strong flavour of apology 
to orthodoxy. 

The French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars 
and their effects interfered with philosophy and sci- 
ence in Western Europe, and at this point the centre 
of interest shifts to America, and indeed for some time 
remains there. 

New England in the early years of the nineteenth 
century was, like Europe, in a state of ferment, but 
the working was mainly in philosophy, religion, and 
social ideas. Crank communities abounded, preaching 
vegetarianism ( "a return to acorns and the golden age," 
as Emerson humorously put it in "New England Re- 
formers"), mindcure, shakerism, and all sorts of fads. 
Travelling mesmerists toured the towns and villages, 
and clairvoyants, mesmeric "subjects," and mystical 

M, Theory of Pneumatology" ("Theorie der Geister-Kunde"), p. 372. 



58 SPIRITUALISM 

ideas abounded, as we see in the biographies of Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, Thoreau, Lowell, Mrs. Eddy, and 
others. Swedenborg's books, or some of them, had been 
translated, and his doctrines were taking hold of many 
who, after abandoning orthodoxy, were still unsatisfied 
with the intellectual Unitarianism which was the main 
religion of New England at that time. Moreover the 
Universalist body was suffering disruption, and the 
early American Swedenborgians and Spiritualists were 
largely drawn therefrom. O. W. Holmes studied 
medicine in Paris in 1833 and learnt much of mesmer- 
ism and the like, even evolving something very near 
the modern doctrine of the subliminal self and of mul- 
tiple personality. Emerson's transcendental tract 
"Nature" appeared in 1836, treating the world of 
sense as a symbol of something more real. The popu- 
lar mind was in the mood for revelations ; and a reve- 
lation came. 

Andrew Jackson Davis was born in 1826 in a village 
of New York State, moving in 1838 with his family 
to Poughkeepsie in the same State. His parents were 
working people, and he himself was in 1841 appren- 
ticed to a shoemaker. In 1843 he was hypnotised by a 
tailor named Levingston, and practised for some time 
as clairvoyant diagnoser of disease, also prescribing 
remedies. In 1844 he fell into a spontaneous trance, in 
which Galen and Swedenborg appeared to him and in- 
structed him concerning his mission to mankind. A 
Dr. Lyon and the Rev. William Fishbough became as- 
sociated with him as hypnotiser and scribe respectively, 
and the three took lodgings in New York, Davis having 
two trances daily, mostly for medical clairvoyance, but 



IN AMERICA 59 

also for the purpose of giving philosophical lectures, 
which were published in 1847 under the title of "The 
Principles of Nature : Her Divine Revelations." The 
trance-utterances were admittedly touched up as to 
grammar and phrasing by Davis's better-educated asso- 
ciates, but the book was nevertheless a surprising pro- 
duction, and it had considerable success; partly owing 
to enthusiastic advertisement by the Rev. George Bush, 
Professor of Hebrew in the University of New York, 
and a Swedenborgian. It traces the evolution of the 
Universe from its beginnings as an "ocean of Liquid 
Fire" ; making many glaring mistakes in chemistry and 
physics, but giving probably a more ample and more 
sequent account than would have been possible to Davis 
in his normal state. He had, however, probably read 
some work giving a popular account of the nebular 
hypothesis and of geological progression (for his geol- 
ogy is that of the British Isles), and there is evidence 
that he had read some of Swedenborg. Also he prob- 
ably knew something of Hinduism. The ampler pow- 
ers of the subliminal may be credited with the rest, 
aided by his two associates. Part of the book is social- 
istic, reflecting the Fourierism then popular, and there 
is an atmosphere of moral enthusiasm for the regenera- 
tion of mankind which partly accounts for its popular- 
ity. It ran through thirty- four editions in thirty years. 
Davis's teaching as to the future life is somewhat 
Swedenborgian, though differing in details, in the Hin- 
du direction, and is not without a certain sublimity, 
mixed with some incomprehensibility. The following 
may serve as an illustration. It is taken from Vol. I 
of "The Great Harmonia," published in 1851, which 



60 SPIRITUALISM 

in many volumes expanded the teaching of "The Prin- 
ciples of Nature," etc. 

After the individual souls leave this planet (and all planes 
in universal space which yield such organisations of matter), 
they ascend to the Second Sphere of existence. Here all indi- 
viduals undergo an angelic discipline, by which every physical 
and spiritual deformity is removed, and symmetry reigns 
throughout the immeasurable empire of holy beings. When 
all spirits shall have progressed to the Second Sphere, the 
various earths and planets in the Universe, which once 
swarmed with life and animation, will be depopulated and 
not a living thing will move upon their surface. And so there 
will be no destruction of life in that period of disorganisation, 
but the earth, and suns, and planets will die — their life will 
be absorbed by the Divine Spirit. God is Positive — all else 
is negative. He is the Moving Power — all else is moved. He 
will expand his inmost capacity and attract the glowing ele- 
ments of His being which permeate the boundless expanse of 
matter; and all matter, which is not organised into spirit, will 
die and fall into its original condition. But the inhabitants 
of the second sphere will ultimately advance to the third, then 
to the fourth, then to the fifth, and lastly to the sixth; this 
sixth sphere is as near the great Positive Mind as spirits can 
ever locally or physically approach. It is greater than all the 
others. It encircles infinity. It is in the neighbourhood of the 
divine aroma of the Deity; it is warmed and beautified infin- 
itely by His infinite Love, and it is illuminated and rendered 
unspeakably magnificent by His all-embracing Wisdom. In 
this ineffable sphere, in different stages of individual progres- 
sion, will ALL spirits dwell. They will be held together by 
the attractive emanations of Deity, like the safe protection of 
an infinite belt, which will embrace the entire sphere in which 
will reside incalculable multitudes of created and eternalised 
souls. 1 

1K The Great Harmonia: Being a Philosophical Revelation of the 

Natural, Spiritual, and Celestial Universe," pp. 251-2. 



IN AMERICA 61 

When all spirits arrive at the Sixth Sphere of existence 
and the protecting Love and Wisdom of the Great Positive 
Mind are thrown tenderly around them, and when not a single 
atom of life is wandering from home in the fields and forests 
of immensity, then the Deity contracts his inmost capacity, 
and forthwith the boundless vortex is convulsed with a new 
manifestation of Motion — Motion transcending all our concep- 
tions, and passing to and fro from centre to circumference, 
like mighty tides of Infinite Power. Now, the law of Associa- 
tion or gravitation exhibits its influence and tendency in the 
formation of new suns, new planets, and new earths. The 
law of progression or refinement follows next in order, and 
manifests its unvarying tendency in the production of new 
forms of life on those planets; and the law of Development 
follows next in the train, and exhibits its power in the creation 
of new plants, animals, and human spirits upon every earth 
prepared to receive and nourish them. Thus God will create 
a new Universe, and will display different and greater ele- 
ments and energies therein. And thus new spheres of spiritual 
existences will be opened. These spheres will be as much 
superior to the present unspeakable glories of the sixth sphere 
as the sixth sphere is now above the second sphere, which is 
next superior to the sphere of earth. When the new and 
superior Universe is completely unfolded, or when the new 
heavens and the new earths are developed, the spirits in the 
sixth sphere will be again in the second sphere; because the 
highest sphere in the present order of the Universe will con- 
stitute the second sphere in the new order which is to be devel- 
oped. Thus there will be four spheres for the spirits and 
angels at the consummation of the new unfolding, to advance 
through, as there are now four between the second sphere and 
the sixth which we have been considering. 

There have already been developed more new Universes, in 
the manner described, than there are atoms in the earth. And 
I suppose it is scarcely necessary to state that the human mind 
is incapable of computing the millions of centuries which are 
required for even those souls that now inhabit the Second 



62 SPIRITUALISM 

Sphere to progress into the one above it — into the Third 
Sphere. And it would be still more useless to state that as 
many millions of such eternities as we can possibly conceive 
of, will roll into the past ere we begin to approach that change 
of Universal relations of which I have spoken. 1 

In later developments the conception of the spirit 
world became more concrete. Most of the writers agree 
that it consists of spheres situated in space, though they 
disagree as to details. Hudson Tuttle says : 

An unknown universe exists beyond the material creation. 
It is formed from emanations arising from the physical uni- 
verse, and is a reflection of it. This is the spiritual uni- 
verse. . . . 2 

The spirit-spheres are rather zones than spheres. They are 
one hundred and twenty degrees wide; that is, they extend 
sixty degrees each side of the earth's equator. If we take the 
sixteenth parallel of latitude each side of the equator, and 
imagine it projected against the blue dome of the sky, we have 
the boundaries of those zones. . . . The first zone, or the 
innermost one, is sixty miles from the earth's surface. The 
next external is removed from the first by about the same dis- 
tance. The third is just outside the moon's orbit, or two hun- 
dred and sixty-five thousand miles from the earth. 

Although atoms may be sufficiently refined when they are 
first ultimated from earth to pass by the first and enter the 
second zone, yet the second zone is, speaking in a general sense, 
the offspring of the first, as the first is the offspring of the 
earth; and, from the second, the third is elaborated by a sim- 
ilar process to that by which the earth exhales spiritualised 
matter. From the third sphere rise the most sublimated ex- 
halations, which mingle with the emanations of the other 

*"The Great Harmonia," pp. 253-4- A useful digest of Davis's 
teachings is given in "The Harmonial Philosophy" (Rider, London, 
1917). 

2 "Arcana of Spiritualism," p. 378 (London edition, 1876, James 
Burn). 



IN AMERICA 63 

planets, and form a vast zone around the entire solar system, 
including even the unknown planets beyond the vast orbit of 
Neptune. . . . 

The thickness of the spheres varies. The first is nearly 
thirty, while the second is twenty, and the third is but two 
miles in thickness. The first is the oldest by immeasurable 
time, as it was the first to begin to form; and, until it sup- 
ported organisations, it could exhale but a small amount of 
refined matter to the second, and of course the progress was 
delayed still longer in the creation of the third. 1 

Matter, when it aggregates there, is prone to assume the 
forms in which it existed here. Hence there are all the forms 
of life there as on earth, except those, such as the lowest plants 
and animals, which cannot exist surrounded by such superior 
conditions. The scenery of mountain and plain, river, lake, 
and ocean, of forest and prairie, are daguerreotypes of the 
same on earth. It is like earth with all its imperfections per- 
fected and its beauties multiplied a thousandfold. 2 

The spirit holds the same relation to this spiritual universe 
that man holds to physical nature. The surface of the spheres 
is solid earth, in which trees and flowers take root, and the 
waters of the ocean surge perpetually on the shore. An ethe- 
real sky arches overhead, and the stars shine with increased 
refulgence. The spirits breathe its spiritual atmosphere; they 
drink its crystal waters; they partake of its luscious fruits; 
they bedeck themselves with its gorgeous flowers. 

It is not a fancy world, nor world of chance or miracle ; but 
a real world — in fact, more real than is earth, as is its per- 
fection. 

The spirit walks on its surface, it sails on the lakes and 
oceans ; in short, follows whatever pursuit or pastime it pleases, 
and the elements there hold the same relations to it that the 
elements of earth held to it while in the physical form. 3 

It may be truly said that the spirit friends of Professor 
Hare stated a great and cardinal truth — that the spirit-spheres 

1 "Arcana of Spiritualism," pp. 385-7. *Op. cit., p. 388. 

• Op. cit., p. 389. 



64 SPIRITUALISM 

surround the earth; but either from want of knowledge, or 
from imperfection of their means of communication, they failed 
to give the details in a perfect manner. However painstaking 
in his experiments, he seems to have received these communi- 
cations with almost unquestioning credulity, and did not sub- 
ject them to the criticism necessary for the elimination of error. 
Judging from the "internal evidence" of the statement, we 
infer that he was prone to fashion theories and "submit" them 
ready formed to the "spirits," rather than to await their spon- 
taneous disclosures. This method is one most liable to error 
of any that can be pursued. A positive element is introduced, 
disturbing in its influence, and shutting out explanation and 
correctness. 1 

Tuttle and his wife were mediumistic, and got mes- 
sages by table and other means. He also received im- 
pressions, and he had sittings with other mediums, but 
in the book he gives net teachings, not exact reports. 
It shows wide reading, and except for a little occasional 
verbosity and inflation of style, is well written. The 
Professor Hare referred to was Professor of chemistry 
in the University of Pennsylvania. He carried out 
many elaborate experiments with a view to the elimi- 
nation of the medium's own mind, and published the 
result in a large volume entitled "Experimental In- 
vestigation of the Spirit Manifestations Demonstrat- 
ing the Existence of Spirits and their Communion with 
Mortals." It is a curious mixture of ingenuity and 
simplicity. The experiments seem to have been good, 
but the Professor was very ready to take the spirits at 
their face value, and was obviously greatly flattered 
by the appearance of "Washington." The book was 
published in 1855. Other writers, notably Epes Sar- 

1 "Arcana of Spiritualism," p. 397, footnote. 



IN AMERICA 65 

gent and Judge Edmunds, added to the growing litera- 
ture; many spiritualist newspapers were founded, first 
among them Davis's "Univercoelum," and Modern 
Spiritualism may be said to have got fairly under way 
in America in the eigh teen-fifties. 

But we must now turn to the phenomenal side, for 
it was the objective evidence supplied by the Hydes- 
ville Knockings and their derivatives that supplied the 
mainstay of the doctrines, or at least a necessary sup- 
port. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HYDESVILLE KNOCKINGS 

IN the township of Arcadia, Wayne County, New 
York State, and in a village called Hydesville, of 
that township, there lived a family consisting of John 
D. Fox, his wife Margaret, and two young daughters, 
Margaretta and Katie, aged fifteen and twelve years 
respectively. In March, 1848, these people were dis- 
turbed at night by mysterious rappings, which were 
found to show intelligence. For example, "it" gave 
any number of raps asked for. Mrs. Fox called in some 
neighbours, some of them vigorously sceptical and in- 
deed contemptuous, but no explanation was forthcom- 
ing, and the raps gave the ages of those present, the 
number of their children, and so forth. "It" also gave 
its own age (thirty-one), said it was a man, with ini- 
tials C. R., and that he had been murdered in that house 
five years before, leaving a family of three girls and 
two boys; also that his body had been buried in the 
cellar of the house. During the next few days the Fox 
family and some of the neighbours dug in the cellar 
to a depth of three feet, without finding anything but 
water. Three months later further digging is said to 
have revealed some teeth, bones, and hair, supposed to 
be human. But the evidence of this is secondhand. 
And, moreover, no murder could be established, though 

66 



THE HYDESVILLE KNOCKINGS 67 

there seems to have been a suspicion of something of 
the sort in connection with some previous tenants. 

The events, however, made a great sensation, and 
the plot rapidly thickened. Margaretta Fox went to 
stay with her married sister, Mrs. Fish, at Rochester, 
N. Y., and Catherine visited another neighbouring 
town. Rappings began at both places. People came 
to hear, and found on returning home that they also 
had the power. The epidemic spread and ran through 
the whole of the Eastern States during the next two or 
three years, coalescing with trance-mediumship and 
clairvoyance, and powerfully buttressing the spiritual- 
istic system of A. J. Davis. 1 

These events of 1848 are usually regarded as the 
beginnings of modern spiritualism. Controversy as to 
the true explanation has raged, off and on, ever since, 
and it seems impossible to settle the matter now. Some 
Buffalo doctors made experiments which satisfied them 
that the Fox girls made the raps with their knee-joints 
or toes — though the account is far from convincing, and 
their attitude obviously biased — and there is a certain 
amount of testimony to alleged confessions on the part 
of the mediums, afterwards recanted or denied. It 
may be that the raps were produced in many different 
ways. The present writer once had a friend who could 
make good raps with his shoulder by some sort of semi- 
dislocation; but he would not have made a good "me- 
dium," for he could not do it without an obvious move- 
ment of the elbow. One thing in favour of some super- 

*A full and impressive account, with documents by witnesses, is 
given in E. W. Capron's "Modern Spiritualism: Its Facts and Fanat- 
icisms" (Boston, U.S.A., 1855), pp. 33-56. 



68 SPIRITUALISM 

normal agency in the Hydesville case and its derivatives 
is that answers were often given which could not have 
been known to the medium. But a great deal depends 
on how the questions were put. Facial indications 
might easily guide the medium to a correct shot, as 
muscle-indications guide the seeker to a hidden coin, 
the seeker holding the hand of someone who knows 
where it is. There seems to be no evidence of true 
answers being given which were not known to anyone 
present. 

On the other hand, as against a fraud theory, this 
phenomenon of supernormal raps has been established 
by investigators like Sir William Barrett, Sir William 
Crookes, Dr. Joseph Maxwell, and others, whose ex- 
periments will be referred to later; and it may be that 
the American epidemic of the eighteen-forties and fif- 
ties was entirely genuine, at least as to the supernormal 
causation of the sounds. We cannot accept anything 
as decided either way; certainly the investigation was 
not conducted with the vigour which later standards de- 
mand; but, on the other hand, it would be risky to 
dismiss the whole thing as hocus-pocus. Unsatisfactory 
as this may be, suspense of judgment seems to be the 
only possible course. 

The same may be said of certain poltergeist phe- 
nomena which created much stir — in both senses of the 
word — about the same time. The Rev. Dr. Phelps 
was a Presbyterian minister of Stratford, Connecticut, 
and in his house there began, in 1850, a series of dis- 
turbances which seemed inexplicable. Objects were 
thrown about, windows smashed, rappings heard — an- 
swering questions intelligently — and so forth. The 



THE HYDESVILLE KNOCKINGS 69 

accounts in the spiritualist papers were gorgeous in 
the extreme, but were mostly at second or third hand. 
However, a few eyewitnesses left records, and a Mr. 
Beach saw a matchbox move, and matches jump out, 
without visible cause. Being evidently of a cautious 
disposition, he declined to admit spirits, but supposed 
that "there exists in Nature an element as yet unknown 
to the scientific world." * The disturbances continued 
for about eighteen months, and it is curious that the 
modus operandi was not discovered, if the agent was 
one of the young stepsons or stepdaughters of Dr. 
Phelps, as would seem possible from the fact that one 
of these children was apparently always somewhere 
about when the incidents happened. The mystery was 
not solved. Andrew Jackson Davis visited the place, 
but was obviously doubtful whether to bless or curse. 
So he hedged — alleging "vital electricity" for the raps, 
and suggesting that someone in the house did most 
of the other things, perhaps under spirit control. 

Of those who were influenced by these early happen- 
ings, perhaps the most notable was John Worth Ed- 
munds, formerly a Senator and afterwards a Judge of 
the Supreme Court of the State. He was convinced 
by the Rochester knockings, which answered his mental 
questions, and which baffled naturalistic explanations 
even when he took an electrician to assist in the inves- 
tigation; and, later, his own daughter Laura developed 
clairvoyance and mediumship, speaking foreign lan- 
guages normally unknown to her, and describing spirits, 
some of them unknown to her but recognised as de- 

1 Podmore , s "Modern Spiritualism," i., p. 197. A full account is 
given. 



70 SPIRITUALISM 

ceased friends of persons present. 1 He published his 
book, in two portly volumes, in 1853 and 1855; it sold 
largely, and was probably next in influence to the works 
of A. J. Davis himself. 

"Spiritualism," Edmunds and Dexter, ii., pp. 44-5. 



CHAPTER V 

EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 

IN England, as in America, there had been much 
interest in "mesmerism," and some mesmeric sub- 
jects had described visions of the spiritual world, 
somewhat in the manner of Swedenborg and Davis. 
But these had been interpreted more or less rationalis- 
tically, and spiritualism cannot be said to have begun 
until the advent of Mrs. Hayden and Mrs. Roberts 
from America in 1852. These mediums produced raps 
and table movements which spelt out messages by in- 
dicating the desired letter as the alphabet was recited 
or run over with the finger. 1 There is the usual con- 
flict of testimony as to the possibility of fraud ; but in- 
dependent experiment by private people soon proved 
that, at least, table-movements are possible without 
fraud and without conscious effort on the part of the 
operators. The investigations of Faraday, Carpenter, 
and others showed that the force was exerted, at least 
in the cases examined, by the sitters, but subconsciously. 
This is still regarded as true in general, though in some 
cases force seems to be externalised, as even the con- 

1 Professor De Morgan, with Mrs. Hayden, obtained answers to his 
mentally-put questions, and was satisfied that mind reading, or some- 
thing more, must be postulated. (Preface to Mrs. De Morgan's "From 
Matter to Spirit," pp. xlii,, xliii. London: Longmans, 1863.) 

71 



72 SPIRITUALISM 

jurer Mr. Maskelync admitted. 1 As to the early mes- 
sages, there are no satisfactory records, the sitters hav- 
ing insufficient equipment for the investigation of these 
new phenomena. It is natural to find that some clergy- 
men considered the communicating intelligences to be 
devils, as indeed under pressure of suggestion they 
sometimes confessed themselves to be; also that in the 
presence of Protestant clerics the devils or wicked hu- 
man spirits confessed their headquarters and chief to 
be located at Rome. 2 

The subject, however, began to emerge from obscur- 
ity about 1855, in which year Daniel Dunglas Home, 
a young Scottish-American, arrived in England. The 
record of his mediumship is one of the best of that 
time, many of his sitters being people of distinction and 
ability, and some of them eminent in science. He 
claimed never to have charged a fee, though he re- 
ceived hospitality and no doubt presents. Certainly 
there is no evidence of any trickery in his case, and 
Browning's "Sludge, the Medium," which was directed 
at Home, is a baseless and regrettable slander. Brown- 
ing objected — legitimately enough — to his wife's in- 
terest in spiritualism, and it has been established that 
he unfortunately accepted vague, secondhand reports of 
Home's being found experimenting with phosphorus in 
the production of spirit lights as sufficient evidence of 
fraud, and the reports were never substantiated. 

The only possible charge that can reasonably be 
brought against Home is that he used undue influence, 

1 Pall Mall Gazette, April 20, 1885. Quoted by Podraore in "Mod- 
ern Spiritualism," ii., p. 11. 

'"Table-Talking: Disclosures of Satanic Wonders and Prophetic 
Signs," by Rev. E. Gillson, Bath, 1853. 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 73 

by "spirit messages," to induce a certain Mrs. Lyon 
to adopt him and give him a large sum of money. The 
case was tried and the money refunded, but Mrs. Lyon's 
evidence was condemned by the judge as extremely 
unsatisfactory, and on the whole there is no proof that 
Home acted discreditably. 1 

Among the important sitters in Home's early days 
were Lord Adare, Sir David Brewster, Lord Brougham, 
Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Lord Lindsay, and Dr. J. J. 
Garth Wilkinson. Brewster records in his diary, pub- 
lished after his death, 2 that in the presence of Home, 
then a lad of twenty-two or twenty-three, unaccount- 
able rappings occurred in the table, which also rose 
from the ground when no one was touching it ; a hand- 
bell rang when no hand was near it, and moved itself 
without visible cause. This was in 1885. In the 
autumn of that year Home went to Italy, and spent 
several years on the Continent, staying with various 
people of wealth and position, and even giving seances 
on several occasions at the Tuileries before the Emperor 
and Empress of the French, also to the Tsar of Russia 
and the King of Prussia. 

At many sittings in England the sitters were com- 
pletely convinced that the spirits of their deceased rela- 
tives spoke through the entranced medium, many mat- 
ters being referred to which were known to no one 
but the deceased person who purported to be communi- 
cating and the one to whom the message came. 3 And 

1 Myers's "Human Personality," vol. ii., p. 580. 
'"The Home Life of Sir D. Brewster," by his daughter, Mrs. 
Gordon, pp. 257-8, Edinburgh, 1869. 
'Myers's "Human Personality," ii., pp. 581-3. 



74 SPIRITUALISM 

telepathy from the sitter seems to be rendered unlikely, 
or at least an incomplete explanation, by the fact that 
in some cases the knowledge shown went beyond the 
knowledge of the sitters, as when communications came 
from two of Mr. B. Coleman's aunts, who had died 
before he was born. 1 Confirmatory testimony of 
another kind was supplied by Lord Lindsay, who, sleep- 
ing on a sofa in Home's room — having missed his train 
— saw standing near Home's bed a female figure which 
faded away as he watched it, afterwards recognising 
it, when looking at some photographs, as Home's de- 
ceased wife. A similar shadowy figure was seen on 
another occasion by Lord Adare and two others. 

Home's more purely physical phenomena were care- 
fully studied in 1870 and onward by Mr. (afterwards 
Sir William) Crookes, who testified to the operation of 
some agency unknown to science. An accordion, placed 
under the table and untouched by the medium, played 
tunes, and could manage a few notes, though no tune, 
when it was held by Mr. Crookes himself. A lath of 
wood on the table, three feet from Home, rose ten 
inches and floated about in the air for more than a 
minute, moving gently up and down as if it were on 
rippling water, the medium's hands, meanwhile, be- 
ing held by Mrs. Walter Crookes and Mrs. William 
Crookes. A pencil on the table stood up on its point 
and tried to write, but fell down; the lath then slid 
across to it and buttressed the pencil while it tried 
again. Tables slid about, untouched. Luminous 
clouds were seen, and materialised hands, which car- 
ried flowers about. And Home himself was lifted into 

1 Myers's "Human Personality," ii., pp. 581-2. 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 75 

the air, thus paralleling the levitations of many saints. 1 
All this in a fair light, usually one gas burner. The 
most famous of the levitations, however, occurred in 
1868, at 5, Buckingham Gate, London, in the presence 
of Lords Lindsay and Adare and Captain Wynne. 
Home floated, or appeared to float, out of one window 
and in at another. The windows were seven feet six 
inches apart, eighty-five feet from the ground, and 
there was no ledge or foothold between them. But 
the accounts do not quite tally, and are not detailed 
enough; so this incident must be dismissed as insuffi- 
ciently evidenced. But it is difficult to believe that 
the whole of Home's phenomena were due to fraud or 
hallucination. As we so often have to say, certainty 
concerning matters of history, which are vouched for 
only by a few people, most or all of whom are now 
dead, is not attainable, and when the alleged events 
are of a kind to which our own experience supplies no 
parallel, it is easiest to suppose that the things were 
done fraudulently somehow. But we must admit that 
this conclusion is due to prejudice, for in any other mat- 
ter we should unhesitatingly accept as final the word 
of so distinguished a man of science as Sir William 
Crookes, especially when supported by such a mass of 
other testimony. 2 

On the other hand, there was certainly a great deal 
of extreme credulity and even perilous obsession in 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vi., pp. 90-127. "Researches in the Phe- 
nomena of Spiritualism," p. 93. This latter is out of print; it is to be 
hoped it may appear in Sir William's collected works. 

2 For further evidential detail see the Report of the Dialectical 
Society, and Home's "Incidents of My Life" — many of them vouched 
for by people of standing — which received a three-column review in 
the Times of April 9, 1863. 



76 SPIRITUALISM 

those early days. The faculty of automatic drawing 
and writing became widely cultivated, even by such 
people as Mr. and Mrs. William Howitt, and great 
claims were made of the agency of the angel Gabriel 
and the like. The doctrine of the subliminal self was 
still below the horizon, and it is not surprising that 
the phenomena were accepted by many at their face 
value. Indeed, no other explanation seemed possible, 
for it could not be doubted that the movement of the 
automatist's hand was involuntary. The thing became 
too common, among people of unimpeachable integ- 
rity, to admit of wholesale imputations of fraud. Ac- 
cordingly "spirit-drawings" abounded, with curious 
mystical explanations of their symbol ogy; also writ- 
ings, and to a less extent visions, purporting to give 
descriptions of the next world, some few of them 
evidential, but most of them unverifiable. 

These early happenings and interpretations, though 
sometimes seeming to us now absurd and mistaken, 
nevertheless directed thought towards truth in rather 
unexpected ways. For example, Keighley, in York- 
shire, had for some time in the eighteen-fifties been 
notable for the activities of a group of Secularists, and 
it was among these vigorous-minded freethinkers that 
Spiritualism secured its first adherents in that part of 
the country, thus bringing them back to religion. They 
started the first spiritualist paper in England, the York' 
shire Spiritual Telegraph (April, 1855), and for some 
time Keighley was the chief provincial centre of the 
movement. The records of these pioneers' experiences 
in circles may seem crude, and "Bacon," "Shelley," 
"Luther," etc., were accepted too easily, along with the 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 77 

angel Gabriel; but there was probably a nearer ap- 
proach to truth in the excesses of their belief than in 
the excesses of their previous unbelief. When released 
from the small horizons of materialism the imagina- 
tion is apt to run loose a little in an unwonted free- 
dom, until the critical faculty reasserts itself. 

During the next few years many "mediums" arose, 
some coming from America. It is not now possible to 
disentangle true from false, but it seems fairly certain 
that false some of them were. The Davenport Broth- 
ers caused much mystification in London by their phys- 
ical phenomena; but in Liverpool the tying in the 
rope trick was too efficient, and a riot followed the 
abortive performance. The same thing happened in 
Leeds and Huddersfield, and the Davenports' career 
in England came to a sudden and inglorious end. Even 
the Spiritual Magazine admitted that trickery was oc- 
casionally used by genuine mediums when the occult 
power was lacking, and this had been amply verified 
since, some of the smaller physical phenomena being 
produced along the line of least resistance, perhaps un- 
consciously, if conditions are not stringent, as in the 
case of Eusapia Palladino. But such elaborate per- 
formances as those of the Davenports hardly admit of 
this mixed hypothesis. Sleight-of-hand, pure and sim- 
ple, seems an adequate explanation. Moreover, be- 
ginning when they were fourteen and fifteen, the broth- 
ers had plenty of practice before coming to England 
ten years later. 1 

J "A Biography of the Brothers Davenport," by Dr. T. L. Nichols 
(London, 1864), describes their phenomena in a humorous and unfa- 
natical yet very sympathetic manner, but Dr. Nichols's own experi- 
ence was slight. He quotes accounts of other people's sittings, and 



78 SPIRITUALISM 

The existence of occasional counterfeits, however, 
does not negate, but rather confirms, the existence of 
the real thing which they copy, and it is undeniable 
that there were many private mediums who cannot 
hastily be supposed to have been deliberately fraudu- 
lent. Mrs. Everitt was one of the best known of these, 
her mediumship beginning in the early eighteen-sixties 
and extending over a long period. Her phenomena 
were largely raps and the direct voice — i.e. voices pro- 
duced in the dark and apparently not issuing from the 
medium's larynx. The present writer knows several 
competent people who sat with Mrs. Everitt, and who 
were completely convinced of the genuineness of the 
manifestations. Another lady, who became similarly 
famous, was Miss Nichol (afterwards Mrs. Guppy), 
whose phenomena Dr. A. Russel Wallace investigated. 1 
The medium was lifted on the table, flowers and ferns 
damp with dew were brought into the room by super- 
normal means, spirits sent messages of various kinds, 
and so forth. These people were in comfortable cir- 
cumstances and made no charge ; the Everitts kept open 
house, and would have been better off without the 
mediumship; Miss Nichol would have been a serious 
loser by the cost of the flowers alone. We cannot rea- 
sonably, therefore, assume ordinary fraud, unless we 
also assume a sort of lunacy, for which there is no 

relies even on the brothers' own statements as to their early history in 
America. It is noteworthy, however, that the alleged phenomena, 
raps, levitation, appearance of hands from the cabinet, etc., are very 
like those later established as occurring in the presence of Home and 
Eusapia, and there may have been some genuine happenings. But 
in view of performances like Houdini's, mere tying — in a dark sitting, 
too—- can never eliminate the possibility of sleight of hand. 
'"Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," pp. 132-7 (second edition). 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 79 

evidence. Either the things were done unconsciously 
by the medium in some irresponsible hypnoid state, 
or they were definitely supernormal, and possibly due 
to the agency claimed. 

In the early history of Spiritualism in England a 
noteworthy feature was the investigation and Report 
of the London Dialectical Society. This body ap- 
pointed, in 1869, a Committee of over forty persons, 
including Mr. Charles Bradlaugh and several medical 
and legal gentlemen, "to investigate the phenomena al* 
leged to be Spiritual Manifestations." Professor Hux- 
ley and Mr. George Henry Lewes were invited to co- 
operate, but declined the adventure. Their letters are 
printed in the Report. Huxley's was vigorous and 
clear, like all his writings. "... But supposing the 
phenomena to be genuine — they do not interest me. If 
anybody would endow me with the faculty of listening 
to the chatter of old women and curates in the nearest 
cathedral town, I should decline the privilege, having 
better things to do. And if the folk in the spiritual 
world do not talk more wisely and sensibly than their 
friends report them to do, I put them in the same cate- 
gory." 1 But I, for one, am such a fervent admirer 
of Huxley that I do not altogether accept his state- 
ment that an unexplained phenomenon would not have 
interested him. His was such an eager and scientific 
mind that any new phenomenon — if he thought it at 
all likely that it was new — interested him very much. 
The facts were that he was very busy with other things, 
that he believed spiritualistic phenomena to be trick- 

1 "Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialecti- 
cal Society" (1873 edition), p. 239. London: J. Burns. 



8o SPIRITUALISM 

ery, and that it would take him — a non-expert in con- 
juring — a long time to find out how it was done, even 
if he succeeded at all. One can understand and to 
some extent excuse his attitude, though we must regret- 
fully admit a certain lapse from scientific method, inas- 
much as he judged without investigation. 

The Committee or sub-committees did a certain 
amount of first-hand research. For example, sub-com- 
mittee No. 1 held forty meetings, always at the house 
of one or other of its members, with no professional 
medium present. At the beginning, four-fifths of the 
sub-committee were "wholly sceptical as to the reality 
of the alleged phenomena, firmly believing them to be 
the result either of imposture or of delusion^ or of in- 
voluntary muscular action" But surprising conver- 
sions followed. "It was only by irresistible evidence, 
under conditions that precluded the possibility of 
either of these solutions, and after trial and test many 
times repeated, that the most sceptical of your sub- 
committee were slowly and reluctantly convinced that 
the phenomena exhibited in the course of their pro- 
tracted inquiry were veritable facts." * The phenom- 
ena thus established were movements of heavy objects 
such as tables, "without the employment of any mus- 
cular force, without contact or material connection of 
any kind between such substances and the body of 
any person present," 2 and in a good light; also raps, 
"distinctly audible to all present, from solid substances 
not in contact with, nor having any visible or material 
connection with, the body of any person present, and 

1 "Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialecti- 
cal Society," p. 9. * Op. cit, p. 9. 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 81 

which sounds are proved to proceed from such sub- 
stances by the vibrations which are distinctly felt when 
they are touched." 1 Moreover, "this force is fre- 
quently directed by intelligence." 2 Some of the phe- 
nomena occurred at thirty-four out of the forty sit- 
tings, and the sub-committee was finally unanimous in 
its conclusions. Notes were taken on each occasion and 
are printed in the Report. No opinion is stated as to 
the nature of the intelligence or intelligences con- 
cerned; the sub-committee members were content to 
state their acceptance of inexplicable phenomena which 
showed intelligence of some sort. 

Sub-committee No. 2 was prepared to go a little 
further. Not only does its report confirm that of No. 
1, but it includes messages from soi-disant spirits, 
usually given by raps as the alphabet was repeated, and 
seems to agree that the spirits made out a case. They 
were usually stated to be friends or relatives of one or 
other of the sitters. No professional medium was em- 
ployed, there was always a good light when the things 
happened (curiously enough, a few dark sittings were 
complete failures), and the sittings were mostly held 
at the houses of two members who, at the beginning, 
were completely sceptical. 

Other sub-committees sent in reports of less strik- 
ing character, the members evidently not happening to 
include any one possessing much psychic faculty. 

Various members described their own individual ex- 
periences, those of Mr. H. D. Jencken, barrister-at-law, 
being specially interesting. He had seen levitations of 

1 "Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialecti- 
cal Society," p. 9. a Hid. 



82 SPIRITUALISM 

a table and a semi-grand piano at his own house, no 
one touching the objects; also had seen an accordion 
suspended in space for ten or twenty minutes, sup- 
ported and being played by an invisible agency. 1 He 
had also seen the handling of live coals, levitations, and 
elongations, 2 spirit hands which dissolved slowly away 
as he gripped them, 3 and many other things, mostly 
with the mediumship of D. D. Home. Mr. Jencken, 
supporting his case from orthodox science, neatly quot- 
ed Grove as saying: "Myriads of organised beings may 
exist imperceptible to our vision, even if we were among 
them, and we might be equally imperceptible to 
them." 4 

Mr. Cromwell F. Varley, the well-known electrician, 
also gave remarkable testimony. His wife was me- 
diumistic, and on one occasion the bursting of three 
ulcers on her chest was foretold, the exact date and 
minute being given, with full instructions as to what 
was to be done. The first was to break in ten days 
from the date of the prediction, at 5.36 p.m. The 
things happened exactly as stated. So with the other 
predictions, made three weeks and a fortnight before 
the respective events. Apparently the information of 
the intelligences speaking through Mrs. Varle)^, what- 
ever they were, was of extreme value, and probably 
saved her life, for Mr. Varley made special arrange- 
ments to be with his wife at the times specified, in 
order to apply the prescribed treatment. 

Most of the experiences described in the Report are 

1 "Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialecti- 
cal Society," p. 117. 

a Op. cit., p. 119. *Op. cit., p. izo. 

4 "Correlation of Physical Forces," p. 161. 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 83 

of "physical-phenomena" order, and are consequently 
not directly evidential of spirit-agency. They may be 
due to unknown faculties in the incarnate people pres- 
ent. But the one class shades into the other; evi- 
dential messages are interlocked with physical phe- 
nomena, and it seems likely that these latter are caused 
by spirits at least sometimes. How spirits can act on 
matter we do not know; but then we do not know 
how our spirits act on it now. We do not know "how" 
we move our own arms; but the fact is that we do. 

One rather significant thing about the Dialectical 
Society's report is that though the Committee found 
it easy to get people to give testimony as to the reality 
of the phenomena in question, they found it difficult 
to get negative testimony. The sceptics, though vigor- 
ous and fluent in newspapers, and wherever they could 
not be cross-examined, became remarkably shy birds 
when asked to appear before a committee of lawyers 
and doctors — even a sceptical committee — and to state 
their reasons for believing the phenomena to be due to 
trickery or mal-observation. The inference seems to 
be that the sceptics in question either had no personal 
experience of the alleged phenomena, or, having had 
it, were unable to say how the trick was done or where 
the mal-observation occurred. Probably total inexpe- 
rience was the truth in most cases. It is easier to deny 
than to inquire. Consequently the Committee, "while 
successful in procuring evidence of believers in the 
phenomena and in their supernatural origin, almost 
wholly failed to obtain evidence from those who at- 
tributed them to fraud or delusion." (Report, p. 1.) 

A curious and interesting case among the profession- 



84 SPIRITUALISM 

als is that of David Duguid. A Glasgow cabinet-maker 
by trade, he discovered that he was a trance-medium, 
and purported to execute paintings under the control 
of the Dutch painters, Jacob Ruysdael and Jan Steen. 
Friends of mine sat with Duguid (who is now dead), 
and were inclined to believe in some supernormal ity ; 
but the sittings being in the dark, it was difficult to 
decide. Moreover, substitution of paintings executed 
before and held in readiness, was not entirely excluded. 
On the other hand, a curious revelational romance re- 
ceived through him and published under the title, 
"Hafed, Prince of Persia," certainly suggests the genu- 
ineness of the trance, without being at all convincing as 
to any agency beyond the medium's subconsciousness. 1 
But the most striking phenomenon of the spiritualist 
repertory was that of "materialisation." This had al- 
ready been observed in America at sittings with the 
Fox girls, and in England to some extent with Home 
and others; but the most important evidence for this 
phase was obtained by Sir (then Mr.) William 
Crookes. 2 Sitting with Miss Florence Cook, often at 
his own house and with no discoverable confederate 
present, the form of "Katie King" appeared, in shin- 
ing white robes and with golden hair, the medium be- 

1 Hafed is said to have been a Persian prince who lived at the 
beginning of the Christian era. He was one of the Wise Men of the 
East who were guided to Judaea by the star; and later Jesus spent 
some years with him in Persia, travelling also in Judaea, Egypt, and 
Greece. So we are told, and we cannot disprove it. But we recognise 
that the gap in the history of Jesus' life between twelve and thirty is 
a tempting thing for the religious imagination to work on, and the 
revelations of Hafed may be of the same kind, fundamentally, as 
Mile. Helene Smith's revelations about the language and customs of 
the inhabitants of Mars, namely, subliminal creations, resembling 
dreams. 

* "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism," 1874. 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 85 

ing dark-haired and dressed in black. Moreover, their 
pulse-rates were different, the medium's ears were 
pierced for ear-rings and Katie's were not, and Katie 
was much the taller of the two. Whatever the ex- 
planation, it was not the sceptic's ordinary one of the 
medium masquerading in white muslin. (Nor was it 
hallucination, for Katie was photographed over forty 
times.) It is difficult to believe that a confederate 
could have been present, or that she could have disap- 
peared as Katie did. But it is also difficult to be- 
lieve the spirit-theory. So there it remains. Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes was convinced that Katie was not an 
ordinary incarnate human being, and he has frequently 
said that he has seen no reason to change his opinion. 1 
And he has the best right to pronounce, for he was 
there and we were not. 

Another famous physical medium of those days was 
William Eglinton, a young man who produced mate- 
rialisation, slate-writing by alleged spirits without the 
use of a physical body (i.e. "direct" writing), and so 
forth. He was born in 1857, was entranced at a home 
sitting in 1874 — ^ IS father, an agnostic, having been 
sufficiently impressed, by a debate on spiritualism, to 
try for table-movements — and took up professional 
mediumship in 1875. He travelled on the Continent, 
in America, South Africa, and India; sitting, e.g. with 
the General commanding the Indian Army. In 1876 
he gave impressive sittings at Mrs. Macdougal Greg- 
ory's, where Sir Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley, 
General Brewster, and other notable people were pres- 
ent. At Dr. Nichol's house in Malvern, in a fair light, 

1 E.ff. International Psychic Gazette, December, 1917, pp. 61-2. 



86 SPIRITUALISM 

the medium came out of the cabinet and was seen 
along with the spirit form. One slight, white-robed 
figure, with golden hair flowing over her shoulders, 
purported to be the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Nichol, 
who were fully convinced. Another form demate- 
rialised in front of Dr. Nichol, "gradually shrinking 
from a good six feet high — a head taller than the me- 
dium — to a pigmy size, then melting into the air, leav- 
ing only a mass of gauzy drapery, which was held up 
and shaken before us to show that the form had van- 
ished." 1 Dr. Nichol describes also the tying of knots 
in a piece of string, the ends of which were knotted 
and sealed. 

As described, these phenomena are indeed inexplic- 
able. But it is difficult or impossible to feel sure that 
the description covers all that happened. In any ordi- 
nary conjuring trick the thing is impossible as the spec- 
tator describes it; the point is that he does not de- 
scribe it fully — does not see all that is done. Eglinton, 
if fraudulent, was exceptionally skilful; but Mr. S. J. 
Davey, of the S.P.R., afterwards equalled his slate- 
writing performances, and, as to materialisation, it 
seems established that Archdeacon Colley found a false 
beard and some muslin in Eglinton's possession, both 
matching pieces which had been cut from the hair and 
robe of the "materialised spirit" Abdullah! After 
that, it hardly seems necessary to argue the point as 
to whether Eglinton had any gleams of genuineness. 

And it is unquestionable that as the critical standard 

lu, Twixt Two Worlds: a Narrative of the Life and Work of Wil- 
liam Eglinton," by John S. Farmer, p. 26. London: The Psychological 
Press, 1886. 



EARLY DAYS IN ENGLAND 87 

has risen, supposed "mediums" of this class have dimin- 
ished in number. Many have been exposed, and at 
the present time there is, I think, only one professional 
in England. I have had accounts from friends who 
have certainly had curious and in some cases convinc- 
ing experiences with him; but, on the whole, his phe- 
nomena cannot be considered to be established as be- 
yond the range of trickery, helped out by vivid imagi- 
nation excited by sitting in darkness and expectancy. 
We know little about the psychology of such conditions, 
and it is quite likely that sitters pass into a mental state 
not quite normal, and closely analogous to hypnosis. 
Thus far on the negative side ; but it must be admitted 
that the question remains open, for modern science has 
taught us the unwisdom of declaring anything to be 
impossible. Materialisation may be a fact. But the 
evidence is not conclusive yet. 



CHAPTER VI 

WILLIAM STAINTON MOSES 

PROBABLY every one has some mediumistic 
power in one or other direction, and the history 
of the subject is full of the minor phenomena of half- 
developed mediums, as well as the performances of 
persons who were remarkable people if genuine, but 
whose genuineness was not sufficiently attested. It is 
therefore necessary, in a volume which cannot be ex- 
haustive, to select the most outstanding cases, remark- 
ing, however, that they are only the highest summits, 
so to speak, and that their exceptionality is really per- 
haps less than would appear in a fuller history. 

William Stainton Moses, whose life F. W. H. 
Myers has justly called one of the most extraordinary 
lives of the nineteenth century, 1 was born in Lincoln- 
shire on November 5th, 1839, tne son °f a grammar- 
school headmaster. He showed ability, and the family 
moved to Bedford in 1852 in order that he might have 
the educational advantages of Bedford School, where 
he did well, gaining a scholarship at Exeter College, 
Oxford. There he showed himself hardworking, but 
not brilliant. At twenty- four he was ordained by 
Bishop Wilberforce, and took a curacy at Kirk Maug- 

1 "Human Personality," vol. ii., pp. 225-6. 
88 



WILLIAM STAINTON MOSES 89 

hold, near Ramsey, Isle of Man. He was an active 
parish clergyman, was liked by the people, and showed 
special courage and zeal during an outbreak of small- 
pox, helping, in one recorded case, to nurse and after- 
wards to bury a man whose malady was so violent that 
it was difficult to get any one to attend to him. 

After four years at Kirk Maughold he became curate 
of St. George's, Douglas, where also he was liked both 
as man and as preacher. In 1870 he took a curacy in 
Dorsetshire, and created a similarly good impression 
there; but throat trouble and other illness led him to 
give up preaching, and he became private tutor to the 
son of Dr. Stanhope Speer. In 1871 he accepted a 
mastership in University College School, London, 
which he held for seventeen years. Weakened by gout 
and repeated attacks of influenza, he died in Septem- 
ber, 1892. 

The physical phenomena began in 1872, and contin- 
ued for about eight years. They occurred at sittings 
held with friends, usually Dr. and Mrs. Stanhope 
Speer and Mr. F. W. Percival (barrister-at-law and 
examiner in the Education Department), though oc- 
casionally Mr. Serjeant Cox — who was not a spirit- 
ualist, but admitted the supernormality of the phe- 
nomena — or some other friend was admitted. The 
table moved of itself, without contact, the sitters often 
being two feet away from it, and raps, sometimes 
amounting to sledge-hammer blows, were heard. These 
things were not always in the dark, or at a place where 
trickery could have been arranged. For example, Ser- 
jeant Cox says: 



90 SPIRITUALISM 

On Tuesday, June 2nd, 1873, a personal friend [Mr. 
Moses] came to my residence in Russell Square to dress for a 
dinner party to which he was invited. He had previously 
exhibited considerable power as a psychic. Having half an 
hour to spare, we went into the dining-room. It was just six 
o'clock, and of course broad daylight. I was opening letters ; 
he was reading the Times. My dining-table is of mahogany, 
very heavy, old-fashioned, six feet wide, nine feet long. It 
stands on a Turkey carpet, which much increases the difficulty 
of moving it. A subsequent trial showed that the united efforts 
of two strong men standing were required to move it one inch. 
There was no cloth upon it, and the light fell full under it. 
No person was in the room but my friend and myself. Sud- 
denly, as we were sitting thus, frequent and loud rappings 
came upon the table. My friend was then sitting holding the 
newspaper with both hands, one arm resting on the table, the 
other on the back of the chair, and turned sideways from the 
table, so that his legs and feet were not under the table, but 
at the side of it. Presently the solid table quivered as if with 
an ague fit. Then it swayed to and fro so violently as almost 
to dislocate the big pillar-like legs, of which there are eight. 
Then it moved forward about three inches. I looked under it 
to be sure that it was not touched ; but still it moved, and still 
the blows were loud upon it. 

This sudden access of the Force at such a time and in such 
a place, with none present but myself and my friend, and 
with no thought then of invoking it, caused the utmost aston- 
ishment to both of us. My friend said that nothing like it 
had ever before occurred to him. I then suggested that it 
would be an invaluable opportunity, with so great a power in 
action, to make trial of motion without contact, the presence 
of two persons only, the daylight, the place, the size and 
weight of the table, making the experiment a crucial one. 
Accordingly we stood upright, he on one side of the table, I 
on the other side of it. We stood two feet from it, and held 
our hands eight inches above it. In one minute it rocked vio- 
lently. Then it rose three inches from the floor on the side on 



WILLIAM STAINTON MOSES 91 

which my friend was standing. Then it rose equally on my 
side. 1 

Other phenomena occurring at the Speer sittings 
were loud raps and musical (e.g. harp-like) sounds, 
these latter purporting to be produced by certain mu- 
sical spirits attracted to the circle by the presence of 
Mr. Charlton Speer, 2 supernormal scents, levitation of 
the medium to near the ceiling, the bringing of objects 
from other rooms — e.g. a handbell, which rang all the 
way — masses of luminous vapour, globes and columns 
of light, materialised hands, direct writing, etc., Mr. 
Moses being usually in trance. But the physical phe- 
nomena were always said to be secondary; they were 
produced as authentication of the religious and philo- 
sophic teaching received by Mr. Moses through his 
automatic writing, which began in 1873 an< ^ continued 
more or less until his death. The communicators were 
numerous, often including relatives or friends of the 
sitters ; but for the most part they were of more famous 
and more ancient order, such as Grocyn, Beethoven, 
Dr. Dee, Swedenborg; while the most important group 
consisted of spirits still more remote, eminent but not 
divine, headed by "Imperator," with colleagues "Rec- 
tor," ' 'Doctor," "Prudens," etc., who seemed to be 
specially in charge of the medium, mainly with a view 
to the teachings given through him. "Imperator" gave 
his real earth name to Mr. Moses, but the latter did 

1 "Human Personality," 259-60. Quoted by W. S. Moses. "Re- 
searches in Spiritualism," from Cox's "What Am I?" vol. ii. Serjeant 
Cox also describes the incident orally to Mr. Myers. 

3 Dr. A. Russel Wallace obtained harp-like and other musical 
sounds, in addition to raps, in his own house and with a non-pro- 
fessional medium. ("Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," p. 143, 1896 
edition.) 



92 SPIRITUALISM 

not publish it, there being no way of verifying it. Mr. 
Myers was told, and one or two other friends, and 
probably it is now more or less generally known in 
interested circles; consequently, its evidential value has 
nearly evaporated. Nevertheless, if "Imperator" com- 
municated through some other medium, and gave the 
same real name, and if it seemed unlikely that the me- 
dium had any knowledge of it, the fact would be of in- 
terest. But "Imperator's" identity does not seem very 
convincing, and indeed it is claimed that he was more 
of an "influence" than a person, as we understand per- 
sonality. Long-departed and far-progressed spirits are 
said to drop many elements of personality, and the 
idea is reasonable enough. Whatever "Tmperator" 
was, there is no doubt about his aim. This was to lead 
Mr. Moses out of his rather narrow and dogmatic re- 
ligious belief, into the theology of the Broad Church 
School. 

The sittings having been of a private nature, no 
great amount of publishable evidence of the identity 
of manifesting spirits is available, but one or two illus- 
trations may be given. 

At a sitting with the Speers in August, 1874, at 
Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight, a spirit came and gave 
the name of Abraham Florentine. He said he had been 
in the war of 1812, and had died recently at Brooklyn, 
U. S. A., on August 5th, aged eighty-three years, one 
month, and seventeen days. There was some doubt as 
to whether the month and days referred to his age or to 
the length of his illness; but this was cleared up at a 
sitting next day. Both the name and the alleged facts 
were entirely new to all the sitters. Inquiries, how- 



WILLIAM STAINTON MOSES 93 

ever, were made in America, and it was found that an 
Abraham Florentine had died at Brooklyn on August 
5th as stated, and the other details were correct except 
that the seventeen days should have been twenty-seven 
days, for he was eighty-three on June 8th. 

One evening at Mrs. Makdougal Gregory's, in the 
middle of dinner, Mr. Moses felt an unpleasant influ- 
ence from some spirit present, and afterwards obtained 
an automatic drawing of a horse and a sort of a truck, 
with the message: "I killed myself — I killed myself 
to-day — Baker Street — medium passed — killed myself 
to-day, under a steam-roller. . . ." Mr. Moses had 
passed through Baker Street in the afternoon, but had 
heard nothing of any such incident; but it turned out 
that the thing had happened as described. On the front 
of the steam-roller a horse was represented in brass, 
which perhaps accounts for the horse in the drawing. 
The tragedy was reported in an evening paper — the 
Pall Mall Gazette — but none of the party had seen it. 

Another good case was that of "Blanche Abercrom- 
by," and it is specially striking in several ways. Mr. 
Moses, at his secluded lodgings in the North of London, 
received on a certain Sunday, near midnight, a com- 
munication purporting to come from the spirit of 
Blanche Abercromby (pseudonym), a lady whom he 
had once met. The message said it was in her writing, 
for evidence' sake, but publication was forbidden. Mrs. 
Speer, however, was told of it. Mr. Moses marked it 
"private" and gummed down the leaf. It turned out 
that the lady in question had died in the afternoon, 200 
miles from London. When Mr. Myers went through 
Mr. Moses' note-books after the latter's death, he 



94 SPIRITUALISM 

found this script, and compared the handwriting with 
that of "Blanche Abercromby," whom he happened 
to have known. The resemblance was indubitable and 
was confirmed by others. There is no reason to sup- 
pose that Mr. Moses had ever seen any of "Blanche 
Abercromby' s" handwriting. One detail at first seemed 
wrong, but afterwards turned out to be an added con- 
firmation. The capital "A" was different from the 
"A" in the letters first found for comparison; but the 
communicator's son — an unwilling witness, not friend- 
ly to the subject — said that during the last year of his 
mother's life she had taken to making the "A" as it ap- 
peared in the script. 1 

Many more such cases are on record, but the fore- 
going illustrations must suffice; students may consult 
"Proceedings," S.P.R., vols, viii., ix. and xi., for fur- 
ther detail. As to explanations, a forgotten percep- 
tion or telepathy from some living mind may account 
for some of the incidents; but an unprejudiced consid- 
eration of the whole mass of the evidence renders such 
explanation doubtfully acceptable. As to deliberate 
concoction with intent to deceive, plus the fraud theory 
of the physical phenomena, those who knew Mr. Moses 
are the best judges of his character. Mr. Myers knew 
him for eighteen years (1874-92), and this is what he 
says : 

He responded to my unfeigned interest with a straight- 
forward intimacy of conversation on the experiences of which 
I cared so much to learn. But there was no such close personal 
attraction as is likely to prompt me to partiality as a bio- 
grapher; and, indeed, both Edmund Gurney and I were con- 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xi., pp. 96-8. 



WILLIAM STAINTON MOSES 95 

scious in him of something like the impatience of a school- 
master towards slow students ; natural enough in a man whose 
inborn gifts have carried him irresistibly to a conviction on 
the edge of which less favoured persons must needs pause and 
ponder long. I am bound to add that the study of his note- 
books, by making him more intimately known to me as he was 
in his best days, has brought me nearer to the warm and even 
enthusiastic estimate implied in the letters of various more 
intimate friends of his which lie before me. 

More important, however, than the precise degree of attrac- 
tiveness, or of spiritual refinement, in Mr. Moses's personal 
demeanour are the fundamental questions of sanity and prob- 
ity. On these points neither I myself, nor, so far as I know, 
any person acquainted with Mr. Moses, has ever entertained 
any doubt. "However perplexed for an explanation," says 
Mr. Massey, "the crassest prejudice has recoiled from ever 
suggesting a doubt of the truth and honesty of Stainton 
Moses." "I believe that he was wholly incapable of deceit," 
writes Mr. H. J. Hood, barrister-at-law, who knew him for 
many years. 1 

On the question of sanity, Dr. Johnson, of Bedford, 
wrote to Mr. Myers as below: 

March 24th, 1893. 

As the intimate friend and medical adviser of the late 
Stainton Moses I have had ample opportunities of thoroughly 
knowing his character and mental state. 

He was a man even in temper, painstaking and methodical, 
of exceptional ability, and utterly free from any hallucination 
or anything to indicate other than a well-ordered brain. 

He was a firm believer in all that he uttered or wrote about 
matters of a spiritual nature, and he impressed me — and, I 
believe, most others he came in contact with — with the gen- 
uineness of his convictions and a firm belief not only that he 
believed in the statements he had made and written, but that 

a F. W. H. Myers on "The Experiences of W. Stainton Moses," 
"Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. ix., p. 247. 



9 6 SPIRITUALISM 

they were the outcome of a mind which had given itself up 
entirely to the study of a subject which he considered of essen- 
tial value and importance to the welfare of his fellowmen. 

I have attended him in several very severe illnesses, but 
never, in sickness or at other times, has his brain shown the 
slightest cloudiness or suffered from any delusion. I not only 
consider that he believed what he stated, but I think that those 
who knew him best would not for an instant doubt that all he 
stated were facts and words of truth. 

Sincerely yours, 

Wm. G. Johnson. 1 

In another letter Dr. Johnson says : 

He was a most lovable character; kind and generous in his 
every action; and with a fund of information on most sub- 
jects which made him a most welcome guest. 2 

And Dr. Eve, headmaster of University College 
School, wrote as follows to Professor Sidgwick: 

Stain ton Moses was an excellent colleague. He confined 
himself entirely to English; in that subject he took classes in 
all parts of the school, and his work was always well and 
methodically done. He taught essay-writing well, and was 
very skilful in appreciating the relative value of boys' essays, 
which is not easy. He was much looked up to by boys, and 
had considerable influence over them. On general points con- 
nected with the management of the school he was one of the 
colleagues to whom I most naturally turned for advice, and 
I have every reason to be grateful to him. 

Yours very sincerely, 

H. W. Eve. 8 

""Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. ix., p. 251. It is perhaps not irrelevant 
to note that Mr. Moses was normal in physical appearance ; of middle 
height, strongly built, full features, with thick dark hair and beard. 
There is no reason to believe he was of Jewish descent; the name 
seems to have been altered from "Mostyn" by some ancestor. 

8 Ibid. *Ibid. 



WILLIAM STAINTON MOSES 97 

As to Dr. Speer, he was M.D. of Edinburgh, held 
various hospital posts with credit, and "was much val- 
ued as a practical physician at Cheltenham and in 
London." 1 His cast of mind was strongly materialis- 
tic, and it is remarkable that his interest in Mr. Moses' 
phenomena was, from first to last, of a purely scien- 
tific, as contrasted with an emotional or a religious, 
nature." 2 

It is not possible to give more than the foregoing 
sketch here, but what has been said may be sufficient 
to indicate that the life of Stainton Moses furnishes a 
real problem which cannot safely be dismissed offhand. 
He was not a professional medium, took no fee, and sat 
only with intimate friends. If he found it amusing to 
delude them in such elaborate fashion over a period of 
twenty years, there must have been a queer mental 
twist in him; and there is no evidence of anything of 
the kind. Indeed, as Myers says, 3 the idea that Stain- 
ton Moses produced the phenomena fraudulently is 
both physically and morally incredible. Whether they 
were due to spirits is another question, not to be finally 
settled until we know the extent of the subliminal self's 
hidden powers ; but it has to be admitted that the evi- 
dence is strong. 

The student may be referred to Mr. Moses' books, 
"Spirit Teachings" (written automatically and em- 
bodying the Broad Church theology which the spirit 
group mainly came to inculcate), and "Higher Aspects 
of Spiritualism." The former is impressive, though it 
has been urged that it is not beyond Mr. Moses' own 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. ix., p. 248. 

a Op. cit., p. 248. '"Human Personality," vol. ii., p. 227. 



98 SPIRITUALISM 

powers, also that its stateliness approaches pomposity. 
Whatever its source, most people will agree that its 
matter is good. If the author was Mr. Moses* sub- 
liminal consciousness, that subliminal was ahead of his 
supraliminal in wisdom, if not in phrasing. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 

IN 1875 Serjeant Cox, F. W. H. Myers, Stain ton 
Moses, and a few others, formed a "Psychological 
Society" for the discussion of alleged supernormal hap- 
penings, but on the death of Serjeant Cox in 1879 ^ 
was dissolved. In 1882 Professor (afterwards Sir 
William) Barrett, who had already done some experi- 
menting and had brought hypnotic and telepathic 
phenomena to the notice of the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, consulted Stainton Moses 
with a view to founding a society under better auspices, 
and the Society for Psychical Research came into be- 
ing, with Professor Henry Sidgwick as first President, 
and Myers and Edmund Gurney as chief workers. The 
objects of the Society are stated in an official leaflet as 
below : — 

OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 

The Society for Psychical Research, which was incorporated 
in August, 1895, was founded at the beginning of 1882, for 
the purpose of making an organised and systematic attempt to 
investigate various sorts of debatable phenomena which are 
prima facie inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothe- 
sis. From the recorded testimony of many competent wit- 
nesses, past and present, including observations recently made 
by scientific men of eminence in various countries, there ap- 

99 



ioo SPIRITUALISM 

peared to be, amidst much illusion and deception, an important 
body of facts to which this description would apply, and which, 
therefore, if incontestably established, would be of the very 
highest interest. The task of examining such residual phe- 
nomena had often been undertaken by individual effort, but 
never hitherto by a scientific society organised on a sufficiently 
broad basis. The following are the principal departments of 
work which the Society at present undertakes : 

1. An examination of the nature and extent of any influence 

which may be exerted by one mind upon another, other- 
wise than through the recognised sensory channels. 

2. The study of hypnotism and mesmerism, and an inquiry 

into the alleged phenomena of clairvoyance. 

3. A careful investigation of any reports, resting on testi- 

mony sufficiently strong and not too remote, of appari- 
tions coinciding with some external event (as for in- 
stance a death) or giving information previously un- 
known to the percipient, or being seen by two or more 
persons independently of each other. 

4. An inquiry into various alleged phenomena apparently 

inexplicable by known laws of nature, and commonly 
referred by Spiritualists to the agency of extra-human 
intelligences. 

5. The collection and collation of existing materials bearing 

on the history of these subjects. 

The aim of the Society is to approach these various prob- 
lems without prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in 
the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry which has 
enabled Science to solve so many problems, once not less ob- 
scure nor less hotly debated. The founders of the Society 
have always fully realised the exceptional difficulties which 
surround this branch of research; but they nevertheless be- 
lieved that by patient and systematic effort some results of 
permanent value might be attained. 

v|P *^v ^v 'W? n* 

The Council will also be glad to receive reports of investi- 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 101 

gations from individual Members or Associates, or from per- 
sons unconnected with the Society. 

Any such report, or any other communication relating to 
the work of the Society, should be addressed to the Secretary, 
Society for Psychical Research, 20, Hanover Square, London, 
W M or to the Hon. Secretaries, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, 27, 
Grange Road, Cambridge, and the Hon. Everard Feilding, 5, 
John Street, Mayfair, London, W. 

Meetings of the Society, for the reading and discussion of 
papers, are held periodically; and the papers then produced, 
with other matter, are, as a general rule, afterwards published 
in the Proceedings. It is proposed sometimes to include in 
the Proceedings translations and reviews of important foreign 
papers on the various branches of Psychical Research. 

A Monthly Journal (from October to July inclusive) is 
also issued to Members and Associates. The Journal contains 
evidence freshly received in different branches of the inquiry, 
which is thus rendered available for consideration, and for 
discussion by correspondence, before selections from it are put 
forward in a more public manner. 

The Council, in inviting the adhesion of Members, think it 
desirable to quote a preliminary Note, which appeared on the 
first page of the original Constitution of the Society, and still 
holds good. 

Note. — To prevent misconception, it is here expressly 
stated that Membership of the Society does not imply 
the acceptance of any particular explanation of the 
phenomena investigated, nor any belief as to the opera- 
tion, in the physical world, of forces other than those 
recognised by Physical Science. 

It will probably be admitted that in these temperate 
statements there is not much sign of quackery or hys- 
teria. The Society tries to be scientific, to follow the 
facts, wherever they may lead. It exists for investiga- 



102 SPIRITUALISM 

tion, not propaganda. The only belief that a mem- 
ber need have is the belief that the phenomena men- 
tioned are worth investigation. And anyone who de- 
cides, without inquiry, that they are not, is as much 
an a priorist as the most bigoted mediaeval theologian. 
We ought to have grown out of this by now, but error 
dies hard. Paley recognised that the scientific atti- 
tude was the only right one, for he says that, "This 
contempt prior to examination is an intellectual vice, 
from which the greatest faculties of mind are not free. 
I know not, indeed, whether men with the greatest fac- 
ulties are not the most subject to it" 1 — a compliment 
which we have pleasure in passing on to Mr. Edward 
Clodd and Dr. Charles Mercier. 

The S.P.R., then, has no creed. It exists for inves- 
tigation. It has been attacked, and continues to be 
attacked, from many sides; it has to bear, in Myers's 
phrase, "the floundering platitudes of obscurantist or- 
thodoxy" and the "smug sneers of popular science, be- 
littling what it will not try to understand." 2 But 
it goes on its way, and perhaps most of its members 
perceive a certain humour in the alliance of Roman 
Catholics like Father Vaughan, High Anglicans like 
Lord Halifax, and Rationalists like Mr. Clodd, not one 
of whom has any considerable first-hand knowledge, 
and all with one accord assailing those who have. 8 
Perhaps these strange bedfellows have a subconscious 
suspicion that they are on the side where truth hap- 

"Evidences," p. 357. 

a "Human Personality," vol. ii., p. 293. 

3 Mr. Clodd, with commendable frankness, says that he did attend 
one seance about fifty years ago, but does not remember much about 
it. (International Psychic Gazette, April, 1918.) This is delightful. 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 103 

pens not to be, hence their readiness to accept any 
sort of ally. A Manchester Canon recently seems to 
have relied on Mr. Clodd as an authority (no doubt 
to the great joy of the Rationalists) concerning a sup- 
posed confession of Mrs. Piper, the confession referred 
to being, of course, entirely mythical. 1 

For some years the "Proceedings" of the Society 
were largely occupied with records and discussions of 
experiments in hypnotism and thought-transference, 
the latter faculty being held by most of the investiga- 
tors to be satisfactorily established by the facts. There 
were also a few reports on apparitions, haunted houses, 
premonition, automatic writing, crystal vision, and 
multiple personality. For the purposes of the present 
volume, however, the Society begins to be specially in- 
teresting in regard to the investigation of Mrs. Piper, 
and the history of this remarkable case must be briefly 
sketched. 

In 1885-6 Professor William James, of Harvard, 
had about a dozen sittings with Mrs. Piper, whose 
mediumship had only just begun, and he also sent many 
people to her anonymously. The results convinced 
him that she possessed some supernormal power. 2 The 
control, purporting to be a deceased French doctor 
named Phinuit, showed a surprising amount of knowl- 
edge of the sitters' deceased relatives, whom he claimed 
to be able to hunt up on "the other side." The knowl- 
edge went beyond what could reasonably be supposed 
to be possessed by the medium so far as normal methods 
of acquisition went; on the other hand, the spirit the- 
ory was rather discounted by the fact that the French 

1 See Part II., ch. iii. a "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. vi., pp. 651-9. 



io4 SPIRITUALISM 

doctor spoke no more French than Mrs. Piper herself 
might be supposed to possess. Some sort of tapping 
of the sitters' minds, or of some distant persons' minds, 
therefore, seemed a possible explanation, Dr. Phinuit 
being regarded as a secondary personality or fraction 
or dream self of the medium. Professor James never 
reached any settled convictions as to which of the two 
hypotheses was the true one, and his attitude was in- 
dicated when he said: "In the trances of this medium 
[Mrs. Piper] I cannot resist the conviction that knowl- 
edge appears which she has never gained by the ordi- 
nary waking use of her eyes and ears and wits. What 
the source of this knowledge may be I know not, and 
have not the glimmer of an explanatory suggestion to 
make; but from admitting the fact of such knowledge 
I can see no escape." * As to Mrs. Piper's integrity, 
Professor James says, after having her to stay with his 
family on a visit, that he "learned to know her per- 
sonally better than ever before, and had confirmed in 
me the belief that she is an absolutely simple and 
genuine person. No one, when challenged, can give 
'evidence' to others for such beliefs as this. Yet we 
all live by them from day to day, and practically I 
should be willing now to stake as much money on Mrs. 
Piper's honesty as on that of anyone I know, and am 
quite satisfied to leave my reputation for wisdom or 
folly, so far as human nature is concerned, to stand 
or fall by this declaration." 2 

1 Presidential address to the S.P.R., "Proceedings," vol: xii., pp. 5-6. 
Later, though never quite committing himself, Professor James came 
very near acceptance of the spiritist explanation. He regarded it 
as at least a tenable hypothesis, to be treated seriously. 

3 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. vi., p. 654. 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 105 

In 1887 Mrs. Piper came under the supervision of 
Dr. Richard Hodgson, who sent or took many people 
to her, often taking notes himself. In the winter of 
1889-90 she came to England and gave sittings in Liv- 
erpool, Cambridge, and London, to Sir Oliver Lodge, 
Mr. F. W. H. Myers, Dr. Walter Leaf, and others, 
many sitters being introduced anonymously. There 
was a mixture of success and failure, but most of the 
investigators reached conclusions similar to those of 
Professor James. "Professor Lodge, Mr. Leaf, and 
myself [F. W. H. Myers], who are editing the rec- 
ords, have no theory which we wish to impose upon the 
reader. On certain external or preliminary points, as 
will be seen, not we three alone, but all who have had 
adequate opportunity of judgment, are decisively 
agreed. But on the more delicate and interesting ques- 
tion as to the origin of the trance-utterances we can- 
not unite in any absolute view. We agree only in 
maintaining that the utterances show that knowledge 
has been acquired by some intelligence in some super- 
normal fashion; and in urging on experimental psy- 
chologists the duty of watching for similar cases, and 
of analysing the results in some such way as we have 
endeavoured to do." * Sittings are reported at great 
length, and, granting honesty and ordinary intelligence 
on the part of the investigators — which no one will 
deny, — it is clear that the conclusion of the three 
editors is fully justified. 

From 1884 to 1891 the communicating intelligence, 
purporting to be Dr. Phinuit, gave his messages by 

•"Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. vi., p. 436. 



io6 SPIRITUALISM 

speech, the medium being in trance but not at all im- 
mobile. She could stand up and would put her thumbs, 
man-like, where her waistcoat arm-holes would have 
been if she had had them. Early in 1892, however, 
automatic writing in trance began, under the super- 
vision of "George Pelham" ("G. P."), a young lawyer 
who had been known to Dr. Hodgson and who had met 
his death by a fall in New York in February, 1892, 
at the age of thirty-two years. Dr. Phinuit still occa- 
sionally communicated by the voice, but by far the 
best evidence was received through the writing. Dr. 
Hodgson, who was now exercising a very close super- 
vision of Mrs. Piper's phenomena, introduced before 
the date of his next report a hundred and fifty different 
persons, all anonymously or pseudonymously. Omit- 
ting two cases which we will return to later, thirty 
people out of these hundred and fifty were persons 
known in life to G. P. All these thirty were recognised 
by the spirit G. P., their names were given, either sur- 
name or Christian name or full name, and in each case 
the proper degree of intimacy was shown. The two 
doubtful cases just referred to were those of a Mrs. M. 
and a Miss Warner. G. P. said he had met Mrs. M., 
but the latter did not remember it. There is reason 
to believe, however, that a meeting had occurred, and 
it is not surprising that the lady had forgotten. Miss 
Warner, whom he had known slightly, G. P. failed 
to recognise at first; but he had known her only as a 
girl, and the sitting was five years afterwards, when 
she had grown up; the non-recognition was therefore 
natural enough. Of all the remaining hundred odd 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 107 

who had not known G. P. in life, the spirit G. P. 
showed no knowledge. 1 

All this means that if G. P. was a subliminal frac- 
tion of Mrs. Piper and no real G. P. was concerned at 
all, that fraction could somehow tell who was and who 
was not acquainted with a man whom Mrs. Piper her- 
self had not known — for he had met her only once, 
under an assumed name. In other words, the sup- 
posed fragment possessed knowledge characteristic of 
G. P., for no other person could have picked out G. 
P.'s friends so accurately. Much other evidence con- 
cerning other communicators is given by Dr. Hodgson 
in his excellent report here cited, and to it students 
must be referred. Until 1891 Dr. Hodgson had in- 
clined to a secondary personality theory of the phe- 
nomena, but after a few years of the G. P. regime he 
expressed himself as in favour of a spiritualistic inter- 
pretation. He remarks that he was familiar with the 
results of over five hundred sittings, a hundred and 
thirty of them being for first sitters, so his conclusions 
were based on a large mass of data. 

In 1896 Mrs. Piper's mediumship entered on a third 
phase, new controls appearing, calling themselves "Im- 
perator," "Rector," etc. These names, as we have 
seen, appear in the Stainton Moses communications, 
and the natural inference is that these new controls pur- 
ported to be the same spirits as Stainton Moses' old 
controls, though there does not seem to have been any 
very definite claim to that effect. Certain it is that 
the real names given at times through Mrs. Piper as 
being those borne by these spirits in life, do not tally 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xiii., p. 328. 



108 SPIRITUALISM 

with the names given through Stainton Moses. What- 
ever these personalities were, they took charge of the 
medium and announced a change in the procedure. In- 
discriminate sittings were to be for the most part 
dropped, and a new sort of evidence was to be at- 
tempted. Professor Hyslop of Columbia University 
(Chair of Logic and Ethics) was permitted to carry 
out a long series of sittings which completely convinced 
him of the agency of his deceased father, 1 but this was 
almost the last of the old order. Whether the new 
evidence has fulfilled the promises made is a matter of 
opinion; Mrs. Piper's health certainly improved under 
the new regime, and some curious evidential results 
have been obtained; but they are very difficult to as- 
sess. The most important feature, excluding the cross- 
correspondences with which we shall deal later, was 
the appearance of classical matter presumably un- 
known to the medium. The following is a digest of 
one of the incidents in question: 

At a sitting of March 23rd, 1908, Mr. G. B. Dorr 
asked F. W. H. Myers, who had died in 1901 and pur- 
ported to be communicating: "What does the word 
Lethe suggest to you?" In the disjointed answers 
which followed, reference was made but not under- 
stood, to "sad lovely mate,'' "entwined love," "beau- 
tiful shores," a lady with half a hoop (who turned 
out to be Iris with her bow) and other classical things. 
At the next sitting the day following it was said that 
"Myers feels a little distressed because he thinks you 
did not quite understand his replies to your last ques- 
tion," and further references were made to a "Cave, 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xvL 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH fiog 

Mor, MOR, Latin for sleep," and "CYX" with an 
indication that something came between the first two 
letters. In the sitting of March 30th, 1908, among 
other matter, Mr. Myers said "No poppies ever grew 
on Elysian shores." 

Mr. Dorr could make no sense of all this, further 
than thinking that the reference to the Cave of Sleep 
was probably due to association of ideas between the 
oblivion of sleep and the oblivion produced by the 
waters of Lethe. But later, the untiring industry of 
Mr. J. G. Piddington (of the London S.P.R.) dis- 
covered that the details made up a perfectly clear allu- 
sion to the story of Ceyx and Alcyone in Book II. of 
Ovid's "Metamorphoses," which has striking references 
to Iris and the Cave of Sleep, before the entrance to 
which grew poppies, on the banks of the Cimmerian 
river Lethe. 1 

Neither Mrs. Piper nor Mr. Dorr had read any Ovid, 
and Mr. Piddington makes out a very strong case for 
disbelieving that the knowledge allusively shown could 
have been derived from books quoting Ovidian stories. 
Of course in such cases everything depends on the de- 
tails, and these cannot be quoted in full here ; students 
must consult the volume referred to. And it must be 
remembered that this incident, here briefly and inade- 
quately sketched, is only one of several similar ones, 
all difficult or impossible to explain normally, for Mrs. 
Piper has no acquaintance with the classics. Mr. 
Myers, who in most of these cases purports to be the 
communicator or supervisor, was of course a classical 
scholar of the first rank, and the communications are 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xxiv., pp. 87 and following. 



no SPIRITUALISM 

entirely in keeping with the claim made, if we allow 
for presumable difficulties which interfere with fluent 
and coherent communication, introducing a certain 
amount of disjoin tedness and fragmentariness. 

As to the manner of the trance, in the Phinuit days 
Mrs. Piper sat upright in her chair, though with head 
somewhat bowed, and eyes closed. In the G. P. and 
"Imperator" regime the medium's head rested on a 
cushion, face turned away, and all activity was cen- 
tred in the writing hand, which could also gesticulate 
in very meaningful fashion, Sir Oliver Lodge remark- 
ing that "it was full of intelligence, and could be de- 
scribed as more like an intelligent person than a 
hand." 1 The duration of a Phinuit sitting was about 
an hour, and Mrs. Piper would often give two sittings 
a day ; but it was thought wise to reduce the frequency 
to two or three sittings a week, though they sometimes 
lasted two hours, the writing seeming to be less of a 
drain on the medium's strength than the talking had 
been. In the later days the trance came on more eas- 
ily, and practically at will, when conditions were made 
right. After the trance there was usually half an hour 
or so of a slightly dazed state before complete nor- 
mality was reached, and Mrs. Piper would often utter 
ejaculations about the bright and happy state she had 
left, and about the dark and dingy world she had come 
back to — even on a bright sunny day. Sometimes dur- 
ing this period of recovery she could pick out of a num- 
ber of photographs a person, unknown to her in life, 
who had been purporting to communicate ; but this was 
possible only for a half-hour or so after the trance, for 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xxiii., p. 131. 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 1 1 1 

memory was only dimly brought over, and faded 
rapidly 

Mrs. Piper's trances have now ceased, and practically 
the only supernormal feature of her life is an occasional 
piece of automatic writing, usually from Mr. Myers or 
other member of the S.P.R. group on the other side, 
and generally evidential in some more or less important 
way. It seems customary for mediumship to tail off in 
this way after middle age is reached, the supernormal 
power being at its best when the physical health and 
strength is at its maximum in early or early middle life. 

It may reasonably be objected by the sceptic that 
Mrs. Piper was a professional medium and that her 
phenomena are therefore suspect. It is true that elab- 
orate precautions were taken, as described, in introduc- 
ing sitters anonymously, and that other measures were 
taken, such as having Mr. and Mrs. Piper shadowed 
by detectives in order to ascertain whether they went 
about making inquiries, with the result that nothing in 
the least suspicious was ever discovered, and that the 
investigators were completely satisfied that the explana- 
tion, whatever it was, was certainly not to be found in 
normally acquired knowledge. But it is inevitable that 
a certain doubt should linger in the mind when the 
financial element enters at all; and it is therefore very 
desirable that this element should be eliminated as far 
as possible. Fortunately a number of people in Eng- 
land developed psychic powers — people against whom 
the accusation of fraud for money's sake could not be 
brought — and were willing to exercise their power for 
the benefit of science. We owe much to these people, 



112 SPIRITUALISM 

who have had to bear the cheap sneers of ignorant Hog- 
matists and the pain of having their names and results 
fought over like Patroclus' body, among the upholders 
of this or that theory. They are among the martyrs 
of science, and one hopes they will have their reward. 

One of the most important English non-professional 
sensitives was Mrs. Thompson. This lady, born in 
1868, the daughter of a Birmingham architect, and 
married in 1886 to a business man in London, was well 
known to Mr. Myers, and was not, and never had been, 
a professional medium. She was "an active, vigorous, 
practical person; interested in her household and her 
children, and in the ordinary amusements of young Eng- 
lish ladies, as bicycling, the theatre. She is not of 
morbid, nor even of specially reflective or religious tem- 
perament. No one would think of her as the possessor 
of supernormal gifts." 1 

Mrs. Thompson frequently saw spirits, also pictures 
symbolising things happening at a distance (usually 
seen in a crystal) or even premonitory of something in 
the future. She also got automatic writing. But the 
most important feature was trance speech, somewhat 
in the manner of Mrs. Piper's early days. Entry into 
and emergence from the trance was swift and easy, very 
much as in natural sleep. After a successful sitting 
there was a feeling of rest and refreshment, sometimes 
developing into unusual peace and joy; and the trances 
seemed to have a markedly beneficial effect on Mrs. 
Thompson's health. The chief control was "Nelly," 
purporting to be a child of Mrs. Thompson's who had 
died when a baby, and "Mrs. Cartwright," a former 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xvii., p. 70. (Myers's account) 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 113 

schoolmistress of Mrs. Thompson's. Mr. Myers intro- 
duced many people who were unknown to the medium 
and about whose affairs he himself knew little or noth- 
ing; and in many cases they received convincing evi- 
dence of the agency of their deceased friends or rela- 
tives. A few illustrative incidents may be described. 
Dr. Frederick van Eeden, of Bussum, Holland, in- 
troduced without name or address, took a piece of 
clothing that had belonged to a young man who had 
lived and died (committing suicide) at Utrecht. The 
medium, or rather the control, gave an exact descrip- 
tion of him and the manner of his death, and even his 
Christian name "Utrecht.' ' Further, the medium's 
voice became hoarse, and a peculiar little cough ap- 
peared, both of which represented facts, for the young 
man had suffered from these as the result of an at- 
tempt at suicide by cutting his throat, from which he 
had recovered. Some correct Dutch words were spoken 
(Mrs. Thompson did not know Dutch), Dr. van Eed- 
en's full name was given, with "Bussum" and "Neth- 
erlands," and statements were made which were un- 
known to Dr. van Eeden but which were found to be 
correct on inquiry in Holland — telepathy from the sit- 
ter's mind thus being excluded. A few things said 
were wrong, but these were so few and unimportant, 
and the correct things were so striking and numerous, 
that coincidence was an unacceptable explanation. Dr. 
van Eeden said, eight months after his last sitting and 
when he had had time to study the notes thoroughly: 
"It is impossible for me to abstain from the conviction 
that I have really been a witness, were it only for a 



114 SPIRITUALISM 

few minutes, of the voluntary manifestation of a de- 
ceased person." * 

Mrs. A. W. Verrall, then Classical Lecturer at 
Newnham, also had many successful sittings, and one 
series which she reported, concerning some sitters 
known to her, is particularly striking. A certain dead 
lady purported to be communicating through "Nelly," 
and she told a number of facts to first one and then 
another sitter, all of them true and all of them known 
to the dead lady. Some of them were known to the 
sitters, some were not; in this latter case telepathy 
from the sitters was excluded, but telepathy from 
some distant person might be conjectured. 2 But in one 
instance she gave a fact which apparently was not 
known to any living person — namely, a reference to a 
receipt for "pomatum" which would be found in a re- 
ceipt book of hers. The book was discovered, was 
found to be written in from both ends, and carefully 
indexed. No reference to pomatum was found in the 
index; but on examination it was found that the last 
five entries in the middle of the book had not been in- 
dexed, and one of them was a receipt for making Dr. 
Somebody's pomade — which, by the way, was always 
referred to by the dead lady as "pomatum." "If such 
experiences as these were numerous," says Mrs. Verrall, 
"it would be difficult to avoid inferring that the source 
of information is to be found rather in the one con- 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xvii., p. 84. (Van Eeden's account.) 

2 Admittedly it is a rather wild conjecture. Experimental telepathy, 
in which a strong effort of will is made, is a fact; but this is very 
different from supposing that the minds of distant and unknown per- 
sons can be read. These persons are not trying to transmit any- 
thing, and often they are not aware of the medium's existence. 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 115 

sciousness that knew all the events than in the scattered 
consciousness which can, after all, not supply the 
whole." * 



CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES AND EVIDENCE OF CLASSICAL 

KNOWLEDGE IN THE SCRIPTS OF ENGLISH 

NON-CLASSICAL AUTOMATISTS 

Mr. Myers had frequently discussed, during his life- 
time, the idea of getting the same message through dif- 
ferent sensitives contemporaneously, and something of 
the sort did as a matter of fact come about soon after 
his death on January 17th, 1901. Sir Oliver and Lady 
Lodge, receiving communications through Mrs. Thomp- 
son from a soi-disant Myers on May 8th, 1901, be- 
tween 9 and 10.30 p.m., were told that "someone is 
calling me now," and in Mrs. Verrall's script, pro- 
duced in Cambridge on the same evening between 10 
and 10.30, a Myers communicator appeared, saying: 
"Doing something else to-night. Note hour." 2 There 
was also a certain amount of correspondence between 
some Sidgwick communications (Professor Sidgwick 
had died in August, 1900) received through Mrs. 
Thompson in London and Miss Rawson in the South 
of France. But the matter soon developed a much 
greater complexity, and several volumes of the "Pro- 
ceedings" are devoted to reports and discussions. A 
few illustrations, condensed and very inadequate, must 
here suffice. 

Mrs. Holland, an English lady living in India, had 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xvii., pp. 181-2-3. 

2 Sir Oliver's "Survival of Man," p. 300, and "Proceedings," S.P.R., 
vol. xx., pp. 207 and following. 



n6 SPIRITUALISM 

occasionally practised automatic writing from 1893, 
with evidential results, but did not take it very serious- 
ly or send her scripts to the S.P.R. until 1903, after 
reading Mr. Myers's book, "Human Personality and 
its Survival of Bodily Death." She had not known 
Mr. Myers or the S. P. R. group, but messages began 
to come ostensibly from them, notably one from Mr. 
Myers referring to a text, "1 Cor. xvi. 13" ("Watch 
ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be 
strong"), saying also: "I am unable to make your 
hand form Greek characters, and so I cannot give the 
text as I wish, only the reference." This text had a 
special significance, for it is inscribed in Greek over the 
gateway of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Mr. Myers 
had remarked to Mrs. Verrall on the inscription's omis- 
sion of a mute letter. Mrs. Holland had never been 
in Cambridge, and knew nothing about the text being 
on a college gateway. Her script had also given Mrs. 
Verrall's address, 5, Selwyn Gardens, Cambridge, which 
she did not normally know, and, as was afterwards 
found, there were many indications that the scripts of 
Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Verrall were being influenced 
by the same agency, claiming in each case to be F. 
W. H. Myers. 1 And a good deal of this occurred be- 
fore the two ladies made each other* s acquaintance. 

But such incidents as these could be hypothetical ly 
accounted for by telepathy, and a sch erne seems to have 
been devised by those on the other side to circumvent 
this, by sending messages incomprehensible in them- 
selves to each automatist, but which made sense when 

'"Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xxi., pp. 221-38. 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 117 

put together, like a jig-saw puzzle. On March 2nd, 
1906, Mrs. Verrall's script contained, in Latin: 

"Not with such help will you find what you want; 
not with such help, nor with those defenders of yours." 
("^Eneid," ii. 521, Hecuba to Priam when he put on 
armour in the vain hope of saving Troy.) 

"First among his peers, himself not unmindful of 
his name ; with him a brother related in feeling, though 
not in blood. Both these will send a word to you 
through another woman. After some days you will 
easily understand what I say; till then farewell." 

On March 4th came : "Pagan and Pope. The Stoic 
persecutor and the Christian. Gregory not Basil's 
friend ought to be a clue, but you have it not quite 
right. Pagan and Pope and Reformer all enemies as 
you think. (In Latin.) The Cross has a meaning. 
The Cross-bearer who one day is borne. The standard 
bearer is a link." 

On March 5th, in Latin: "The club-bearer (or key- 
bearer, claviger), with the lion's skin already well de- 
scribed before this in the writings. Some things are to 
be corrected. Ask your husband, he knows it well. 
There stand the columns, where Calpe has been left. 
That is the end. No, you have left out something. 
The columns (broken) by incessant reading." 

All this made no sense to Mrs. Verrall, except, of 
course, that she recognised the Virgilian line in the 
script of March 2nd. Dr. Verrall, to whom she showed 
the script on March 2nd, said that he saw a connection 
between the two Latin passages, and on March 4th, 
when he saw the script of that day, he saw evidence 



n8 SPIRITUALISM 

of the same intention in "Pagan and Pope," etc. The 
fact was that the scripts had reminded him of Raphael's 
picture of Attila terrified by the vision of St. Peter 
and St. Paul, when meeting Pope Leo, who went out 
to save Rome. The line about Priam suggested the 
weak defence of a besieged city. Pagan and Pope are 
Attila and Leo. In the picture (in the Vatican at 
Rome) the Cross-bearer rides on the left of the Pope. 
In the background is the city, with the Coliseum and 
aqueducts. It will be noted that a word was to come 
through another woman, and on March nth, Mrs. 
Verrall received a copy of some March 7th script of 
Mrs. Holland's containing the words : "Ave, Roma im- 
mortalis (Hail, Immortal Rome). Could I make it 
any clearer without giving her the clue ?" 1 

I have omitted some details, and to form an opinion 
the case must be studied in full in the "Proceedings," 
where many other similar but still more complex cases 
are given, impossible to summarise. The same remark 
applies to some curious classical puzzles received 
through the mediumship of another non-professional 
sensitive, Mrs. Willett; e.g. "The Ear of Dionysius," 
in which bits came through at different times, making 
up in total a full reference most ingeniously split up, 
to the poet Philoxenes and his imprisonment at Syra- 
cuse. This purported to come from two Greek schol- 
ars, the late Professors Butcher and Verrall, and there 
are points which certainly seem to indicate knowledge 
beyond what is possessed by ordinary readers. On the 
other hand, it is difficult or impossible to estimate satis- 



i« 



Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xxi., pp. 297-302. 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 119 

factorily the amount of knowledge that anyone pos- 
sesses subliminally, and some of the S. P. R. investiga- 
tors may under-estimate Mrs. Willett's. She is said 
to have been unacquainted with the story of Ulysses 
and the Cyclops; but it it difficult to believe that she 
has never read such a well-known story, and it is sur- 
prising that it is not present to her supraliminal mem- 
ory, for she is well read and fond of poetry. And a 
knowledge of these old stories is not necessarily depend- 
ent on a reading of even Homer or Ovid; the Poly- 
phemus and Galatea affair — referred to in the "Ear 
of Dionysius" communications — is contained in Han- 
del's "Acis and Galatea," and many other derivative 
places. In another case the evidential quality de- 
pended on whether Mrs. Willett had read a certain 
article by Dr. Verrall on "The Baptism of Statius" 
in the Albany Review. To Mr. G. W. Balfour this 
seemed unlikely, for he had never even heard of the Al- 
bany Review. But to those who did know that maga- 
zine and had read the article in question, this assump- 
tion of Mrs. Willett's ignorance may seem hasty and 
uncritical. The magazine was a fairly popular literary 
thing, and non-classical scholars like the present writer 
had taken it regularly and, indeed, written in it. It 
seems quite a likely publication to have been seen by 
Mrs. Willett or anyone else of her literary leanings. 

But it must be admitted that though, in certain 
cases, there is a danger of the supposed ignorance of 
non-classical automatists being over-estimated, there 
are other cases in which it is difficult to believe that 
the knowledge shown either is, or ever was, possessed 
by the person writing. We need to be critical and to 



i2o SPIRITUALISM 

keep the standard high, not accepting too easily an 
automatist's statement just because she happens to be 
a non-professional; for we have subliminal memory to 
deal with, and that is more difficult to exclude than 
ordinary fraud. But it is possible to exclude it satis- 
factorily in some cases, as in the G. P. evidence. 

As for the cross-correspondences, they may perhaps 
be hypothetically accounted for by the supposition that 
the subliminals of all the automatists concerned are 
in collusion and engineering a huge deception tele- 
pathically. The idea attributes a disturbing immoral- 
ity to "subliminals,'' but we know that these mental 
levels have not the same moral standards as our supra- 
liminal consciousness. In sleep we do things which our 
waking selves would not, and feel no compunction. 
And though this idea of deception by automatists' sub- 
liminals is unpleasant, it may only lead to a wider 
truth. We might say that the universe deceived us 
about the relation of earth, sun, moon, and stars, until 
Copernicus and his followers found out the truth. We 
have to learn; and the faith of science is that it is 
worth while. But those who have investigated most 
thoroughly are of opinion that the C.C.'s (cross-cor- 
respondences) and the classical puzzles are not due to 
subliminal deception. They are, on the contrary, con- 
vinced that the spiritistic explanation is to be preferred 
as the more reasonable. 

Another theory that has been suggested is that we 
get what we seek. I once introduced a sensitive to the 
study of Fechner's philosophy, which greatly fasci- 
nated her. While writing to me on the subject, a "deep 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 121 

inner voice began chanting a song," which she wrote 
down. The first stanza runs as follows : 

Through the vault of the skies I tread, 
Their glory around me is spread 

With my whole living Face 

Turned to Heaven, I pace 

The void of all Space. 

Clearly this is Fechner's Earth-Spirit that is talking. 
An automatist can perhaps turn on any one of a num- 
ber of taps, according to his or her mood of the mo- 
ment or the kind of stimulus supplied. It is somewhat 
like the pliability of the hypnotised subject, who de- 
claims like Gladstone or Irving, or prays like Spur- 
geon, according as he is told that he is this or that 
person. 

But, after all, the analogy does not fit very well. 
The evidence calls for explanation. We can provide 
conditions, so far as we understand what is required, 
but the real initiative or push comes from elsewhere, 
some "other side." Even if it urged that we seek evi- 
dential messages in general, it is still true that in par- 
ticular they often are of quite unexpected character. 
We get different details from what we were seeking. 
An outside mind seems a reasonable supposition. 

For those who determinedly reject the idea of spirit- 
communication there is a possible hypothesis — quite 
sensible and tenable, and I for one have no wish to 
force belief in any theory — that the phenomena are al- 
lowed by Providence to occur occasionally, in order to 
save us from a blank and erroneous materialism; but 
that the cause is not personal spirits as alleged, but 



122 SPIRITUALISM 

a leakage down of the general supersensible or super- 
physical world, which runs into human shapes to our 
perceptions. The idea does not commend itself to me 
as a satisfactory theory, for, after all, it is only a sur- 
mise; and, arguing from analogy, as in all science we 
do, it seems unlikely that the spiritual world is a mass 
of general mind-stuff, so to speak. Our present world 
is a world of individual objects, individual human be- 
ings; and there seems no reason why the next world 
should not be the same. And, if so, there will be indi- 
vidual human spirits. And some of our messages may 
be from them, as claimed, even though mixed up with 
various confusing elements due to difficulty of trans- 
mission. 

Here, perhaps, may be mentioned two recent books 
which, while not being official S.P.R. publications, are 
by leading members of that Society, and are of the evi- 
dential order. "Raymond: On Life and Death," by 
Sir Oliver Lodge, is a deeply touching memorial to a 
son of exceptional ability and character, killed in Flan- 
ders in September, 1915. There had been a warning 
from Sir Oliver's friend, F, W. H. Myers, through 
Mrs. Piper, wrapped up in a classical allusion to the 
falling tree which was so nearly fatal to the poet 
Horace, and, after the blow fell, Myers seemed to 
constitute himself a second father, on the other side, 
to the son of his old friend. Sir Oliver and members 
of his family received many evidential and comfort- 
ing messages from Raymond through Mrs. Leonard, 
Mr. A. V. Peters, and other mediums; notably some 
concerning a photograph of which nothing was known 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 123 

by the sitters, but which turned out to have been taken 
near the front, as described. 

The book, having such a wide appeal in these days 
of universal mourning, and being the first book of its 
kind to be published by a scientific man of the first 
rank, created great interest, and became a storm-centre 
of controversy, no doubt with much resultant pain to 
the family which unselfishly gave to the world such 
tenderly human and intimate converse, in the hope — 
amply fulfilled — of comforting others similarly afflict- 
ed. This is not the place, nor am I the person, to re- 
ply to its critics. But two things may be said: (1) 
Sir Oliver Lodge does not claim that the book gives 
the best evidence yet obtained; it is evidence concern- 
ing one special person, and cannot be as strong as, 
e.g. the mass of evidence obtained through Mrs. Piper; 
(2) Sir Oliver's convictions do not rest solely on the 
evidence in "Raymond," nor were they newly arrived 
at under stress of natural grief after his loss. The 
fact is that Sir Oliver was slowly driven from a posi- 
tion of agnosticism, first by telepathic experiments 
thirty years ago, later by sittings with Mrs. Piper and 
other mediums, some of them non-professional. In his 
"Survival of Man," published in 1909, he refers to his 
"conviction of man's survival of bodily death — a con- 
viction based on a large range of natural facts" (Pref- 
ace, vii), and says, later: "Not easily or early do we 
make this admission. Tn spite of long conversations 
with what purported to be the surviving intelligence 
of these friends and investigators (namely, deceased 
S.P.R. workers, notably Gurney, Myers, and Hodg- 
son), we were by no means convinced of their identity 



124 SPIRITUALISM 

by mere general conversation — even when ot a friendly 
and intimate character, such as in normal cases would 
be considered amply and overwhelmingly sufficient for 
the identification of friends speaking, let us say, through 
a telephone or a typewriter. We required definite and 
crucial proof — a proof difficult even to imagine as 
well as difficult to supply. 

"The ostensible communicators realise the need of 
such proof just as fully as we do, and have done their 
best to satisfy the rational demand (i.e. by the cross- 
correspondences and classical messages). Some of us 
think they have succeeded." (p. 336.) 

Similar statements were made, carefully phrased and 
weightily uttered, in Sir Oliver's Presidential Address 
before the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science in 19 13, 1 and also elsewhere; but without fur- 
ther references I trust it is sufficiently clear that Sir 
Oliver's opinions were established, by long-continued 
experiment and study, before the occurrence of the 
catastrophe to which we owe the book in question. 

The other volume to which I have referred is Sir 
William Barrett's, "On the Threshold of the Unseen." 
Sir William has a very special and long record in 
psychic things, for he brought telepathy to the notice 
of the British Association in 1876, and is the only sur- 
viving founder of the S.P.R. In this very instructive 
and readable volume he describes many of his own ex- 
periences with sensitives — all non-professionals — and 
he has been particularly fortunate in obtaining raps and 
other physical phenomena under excellent conditions. 
Also he has had very good identity-evidence through 

published in the small volume "Continuity" (Dent). 



SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 125 

the ouij a- writing of friends; in one case a characteristic 
message from Sir Hugh Lane, who went down with the 
Lusitania, though none of those present at the sitting 
knew that he was on the vessel at all. 

Sir William is convinced of the survival of man, 
and that intelligences possibly of many grades exist 
around us in the unseen: 

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth, 
Both when we wake and when we sleep. 

Milton was a poet; but Sir William Barrett and 
other psychical researchers would agree that his insight 
was not only poetic, but also literally true and com- 
pletely in accord with the latest findings of science. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 

THE line between the "physical phenomena" of 
spiritualism and the psychical phenomena is 
rather arbitrary, for the two are a good deal mixed up. 
Strictly, the physical phenomena are those in which 
matter is demonstrably moved or at least influenced 
in some supernormal way, as when an untouched table 
rises into the air or raps come in its substance, a jar 
being perhaps felt, though no general movement; or 
when matter is produced apparently out of nothing — 
though probably abstracted from the sitters or medium 
or both — as in alleged materialisations. But some phe- 
nomena are just on the edge, as, for instance, polter- 
geist happenings, 1 in which matter is not visibly moved; 
in most such happenings, however, it is. 

The best-known case is, perhaps, the haunting of 
John Wesley's paternal home, the Epworth parsonage 
in Lincolnshire. For two months, December, 1716, and 
January, 1717, the most extraordinary noises were 
heard in various parts of the house, and no cause was 
ever discovered. Knocks, creaks, and crashes as of 
broken crockery were heard by many of the family, and 
we have accounts written out by four eye-witnesses 

1 German poltern, to be noisy or throw things about. A poltergeist 
is a noisy spirit, but not necessarily a visible one. 

126 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 127 

(or ear- witnesses) very soon after the occurrences. 
Nothing seems to have been actually broken, and not 
much was observed in the way of objects moving with- 
out visible cause; Mr. Wesley's trencher "danced upon 
the table" without any one touching it, but that was 
about all, except the apparent lifting of door-latches. 
It may be possible to explain some of the happenings 
as trickery worked by some revengeful rustic, for the 
Wesleys were not popular, and Mr. Wesle)^ had 
preached against the superstitious recourse to local 
"cunning men," presumably supposed clairvoyants. 
But the dancing trencher and some of the other phe- 
nomena are not easily explainable on this hypothesis. 
For instance, Mr. Wesley was three times pushed by 
something invisible, so we have at least to add hallu- 
cination to the supposed trickery. 1 Mr. Podmore's sug- 
gestion of trickery by Hetty Wesley, mainly on the 
ground that the raps sometimes seemed to follow her 
about, may be dismissed as unlikely, for some of the 
phenomena happened when she was nowhere near. It 
may be that she was the unconscious medium, for it is 
observed that raps occur supernormally in the presence 
of certain people, though the process is not yet under- 
stood. 

Intelligence is usually shown, and a code may elicit 
messages; but in the Wesley case nothing definite was 
obtained, apparently no code being tried. The Wes- 
leys called the ghost "Old Jeffery," and treated him 
as a joke as far as possible, though he caused them so 
much broken sleep that he was less of a joke than a 

^"The Epworth Phenomena," collated by Dudley Wright. (London: 
Rider, 191 7.) 



128 SPIRITUALISM 

nuisance. The family were often kept up nearly all 
night, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley frequently perambulating 
in search of some cause, and this in the small hours of 
December and January mornings, and in a house not 
fitted with modern appliances for heating, would be 
a far from amusing occupation. 1 

But in the best poltergeist cases there is visible move- 
ment of matter. For instance, in an outbreak at Work- 
sop in 1883, basins and other objects sailed about, 
often in an undulating way which is reminiscent of the 
behaviour of things in the presence of D. D. Home and 
other mediums; crockery to the value of £9 was 
smashed ; and no cause was discovered. Mr. Podmore, 
of the S.P.R., cross-examined six of the eleven eye- 
witnesses separately, all intelligent and apparently 
honest people, and the accounts agreed in all essentials. 
He also examined the house, in daylight, and "could 
discern no holes in the walls or ceilings, nor any trace 
of the extensive or elaborate machinery which would 
have been required to produce the movements by ordi- 
nary mechanical means." 2 

Another curious outbreak occurred a few years later 
at Swanland, near Hull, in a carpenter's shop. Pieces 
of wood sailed about, or hopped along, two feet or so 
at a stride, sometimes hitting one or other of the three 
men working there. Each thought at first that one of 

1 These haunts are ubiquitous. Mrs. Poole describes similar experi- 
ences in their house in Cairo ("An Englishwoman in Egypt"). Cf. "A 
Disturbed House and its Relief," by Ada M. Sharpe (London: Simp- 
kin, Marshall, 1914). In this case the disturbances continued for 
three years, and seemed to be due to the spirit of a man who had 
fallen and been killed in the house while suffering from delirium 
tremens. Cure followed a priest's exorcism. The account is rather 
impressive. 

a "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xii., p. 48. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 129 

the others was playing tricks, but all were soon con- 
vinced that this was not so. As in other cases, there 
was often the curious undulatory motion; "a piece 
would move as though borne alone on gently heaving 
waves," as one of the eye-witnesses said. And they 
were never able to catch the objects while in motion; 
"every attempt so to do was eluded." * 

It may perhaps be objected that in these cases the 
witnesses were not expert investigators or even well- 
educated people. But it is not always so. Professor 
Cesare Lombroso investigated a poltergeist which 
troubled the occupants of a wine store at 6, Via Bava, 
Turin, in 1900, and saw for himself. Bottles rolled 
about or lifted themselves out of the racks and fell, 
breaking on the floor, in a good light (six candles), and 
after careful examination for string or other means 
of trickery. Professor Lombroso noted, moreover, as 
other observers have done, the peculiarity of the move- 
ments; bottles did not fall with normal suddenness, 
"but as though carried by some one." 2 The phenomena 
ceased when a boy employed in the store was sent away, 
and a hasty critic might assume trickery on his part. 
But the boy was not in the cellar when Professor Lom- 
broso carried out his investigations. There seems rea- 
son to suppose that these occurrences are generally due, 
at least partly, to the presence of young people, per- 
haps because of their great vitality. If we look on a 
human body as a reservoir of life-force which during 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. vii., p. 385. Other cases in same vol- 
ume: Articles by F. W. H. Myers, "On Alleged Movements of Ob- 
jects, without Contact, Occurring not in the Presence of a Paid Me- 
dium," pp. 146-98, 384-94. 

a Report in "Annales des Sciences Psychiques." 



130 SPIRITUALISM 

growth is rapidly increasing in capacity and taking in 
that force from higher sources, we may perhaps con- 
ceive of an overflow, so to speak, if the enlargement of 
capacity does not proceed at an even rate, while the 
downrush of "force" continues. This overflow may 
then manifest as physical force outside the person's 
body, as it would have manifested as physical force 
inside it — increased strength — if there had been no 
check. This suggestion is, of course, no more than a 
vague guess. It does, however, enable us to visualise a 
possible "animation" which would render these super- 
normal activities of non-living matter less incredible. 1 

This same just-mentioned peculiarity of motion was 
observed in a Cheriton poltergeist in the autumn of 
1917, when a dug-out as refuge in air-raids was being 
made in a garden. Stones, even up to several pounds in 
weight, "went for" one of the men, who was badly 
bruised. The stones were seen to lift themselves an 
inch or two, then fall back; then a few inches, and 
again a fall; then they would get up properly and sail 
at the man as if he were a magnet. Unfortunately, 
though Sir William Barrett and Sir A. Conan Doyle 
visited the place, catechised the witnesses, and satisfied 
themselves that something unusual had occurred, the 
actual phenomena were not seen by an expert. But 
the details render hypotheses of trickery, marsh gas, 
etc., quite unacceptable as full explanation. 

In such cases there is, of course, no sufficient inherent 

1 Professor Henri Bergson's doctrine that "consciousness overflows 
the organism" (Presidential Address, S.P.R., "Proceedings," vol. xxvii., 
p. 171) is in accord with this guess, though he is not applying it to 
physical phenomena. And if the unincarnated portion of a living per- 
son's mind can temporarily animate portions of matter, so also may 
minds now wholly discarnate. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 131 

reason to attribute the phenomena to spirits. Intelli- 
gence is certainly indicated sometimes, as when move- 
ments occur just after a sceptical remark, the impres- 
sion being given that this was understood and resented. 
In one case the person speaking was immediately bom- 
barded, and his conversion promptly followed. Wheth- 
er this appearance of intelligence is accidental, the 
thing being really due to mechanical agencies not yet 
understood, or whether the objects are somehow tem- 
porarily animated by sub-human and frisky intelli- 
gences or fragments of the world-soul, or whether they 
are thrown by human or other spirits — which is ren- 
dered unlikely by the observed mode of motion — we 
cannot tell. 

But in mediumistic cases the same kind of thing is 
certainly associated with spiritist claims. The phe- 
nomena are usually stated to be additional proofs of 
the presence of external intelligent agencies, who give 
identity-tests and religious teaching by trance speech 
or writing. We have already mentioned the cases of 
D. D. Home and Stainton Moses, and we now come 
to the famous Neapolitan peasant woman who un- 
doubtedly had very great powers either of mediumship 
or conjuring! 

Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918) came of poor Ital- 
ian peasant parents, and had no education, never learn- 
ing to read or to write more than her own name. She 
became servant in a family given to spiritualistic 
practices, and, being called one day to make up the 
circle at a seance, was found to possess power. Several 
well-known people investigated and were convinced, 
including Professor Lombroso (in 1891), who, from 



132 SPIRITUALISM 

strong scepticism, was converted to belief in at least 
the non-fraudulent character of the occurrences. 

In 1892 seventeen sittings were held in Milan by 
a committee including Professor Schiaparelli, Director 
of the Astronomical Observatory of Milan; Professor 
Richet, Professor of Physiology in Paris ; Carl du Prel, 
Ph.D., of Munich; Angelo Brofferio, Professor of 
Philosophy, and three physicists — Professor Gerosa and 
Drs. Ermacora and Finzi. Levitations of the table oc- 
curred in full light; also inexplicable movements of 
other objects, and alteration of the medium's weight; 
while, in darkness or semi-darkness, hands appeared and 
touched the sitters. The committee decided that none 
of the phenomena occurring in the light could have 
been done by trickery, and that this was true of many 
of the others. 1 

In 1893-4 forty sittings were held in Warsaw by Dr. 
Ochorowicz, who was convinced of the supernormality 
of the phenomena. But some of his colleagues were 
not, and the series must be considered inconclusive. 

In 1894 Sir Oliver Lodge and Mr. F. W. H. Myers 
took part in experiments at Professor Richet' s invita- 
tion, on the He Roubaud, in the Mediterranean, and 
Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick collaborated soon after- 
wards. No fraud was discovered, and several of the 
investigators favoured a supernormal theory, but the 
conditions did not admit of complete certainty being 
reached. 

In 1895 Eusapia gave twenty-one sittings at Cam- 
bridge, and Dr. Richard Hodgson showed clearly that 

lu Annales des Sciences Psychiques," 1893, pp. 1-31, 39-64. Criti- 
cism by Mr. Podmore in "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. ix., p. 218. 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 133 

trickery was used, mainly in substitution of hands and 
feet. But it must be mentioned that the holding was 
intentionally lax, in order that the fraudulent methods 
might be observed and studied, and it is possible that 
an honest medium, perhaps in trance or some abnormal 
state, may follow the line of least resistance and pro- 
duce phenomena in ordinary muscular ways when that 
is possible. It is only fair to Eusapia to say that she 
always asked to be well held, in order that this might 
be avoided. And practically all the investigators, ex- 
cept those of the Cambridge group who had not had 
good sittings elsewhere, became convinced that after 
every allowance for the use of normal muscular action, 
there was evidence for the exertion of force in some 
supernormal way. Among the voluminous reports and 
discussions on Eusapia between 1895 an( ^ 1 9°7 mav 
be mentioned Professor Flammar ion's "Les Forces Nat- 
urelles Inconnues," the two-volume work, "Psicologia 
e Spiritismo," by Enrico Morselli, Professor of Path- 
ology in the University of Genoa, the report by Dr. 
Courtier in the Bulletin de Vlnstitut General Psycho- 
logique of Paris, which covers experiments extending 
over three years, and the report by Professor Bottazzi, 
Professor of Physiology in the University of Naples 
(resume in Annates des Sciences Psychiques, August — 
November, 1907). 

It was felt, however, that an investigation ought to 
be carried out, not only by scientific men, but by ex- 
perts in conjuring and trickery. Accordingly the S.P.R. 
appointed a committee which should fulfil these con- 
ditions, and a series of sittings was held in Naples in 
1908. The investigators were three. Mr. W. W. Bag- 



134 SPIRITUALISM 

gaily was an old hand at amateur conjuring and inves- 
tigation of "physical phenomena," and a member of 
the S.P.R. Council. He had sat with practically all 
the English physical "mediums" since the days of D. D. 
Home, and had never found anything that could not, 
in his opinion, be accounted for by trickery. Mr. Here- 
ward Carrington had reached similarly negative con- 
clusions, after ten years of investigation in America; 
all the things he saw he could imitate, and in many 
cases could improve on the methods. His large book, 
"The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism," gives a 
full description of the most famous "phenomena." 
Apart from "mediumistic" trickery he is an extremely 
clever amateur conjurer. The Hon. E. Feilding, 
though less of a specialist at conjuring proper, had had 
a large experience of fraudulent physical "mediums," 
and did not expect that the alleged phenomena would 
be found to be genuine in any case. All were young 
or in early middle age ; active and alert ; quite capable, 
one would think, of holding and watching a stout Nea- 
politan peasant woman of fifty-four. 

Their report of the eleven sittings is in "Proceedings," 
S.P.R., vol. xxiii., pp. 309-569. The investigators oc- 
cupied adjoining rooms at one of the principal hotels in 
Naples, and the sittings were held in one of them and 
not at Eusapia's home or anywhere suggested by her. 
An English shorthand-writer took down the investi- 
gator's comments as things occurred. A cabinet was 
made by hanging thin black cashmere curtains across 
a corner of the room, and a few small objects were 
placed therein; namely, two tambourines, a guitar, a 
toy piano, a flageolet, and a small table. Another table 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 135 

was out in the room, for levitation phenomena and the 
like. 

The amount of light varied, the medium or "con- 
trol" sometimes asking for reduction or extinction. But 
it was not found that darkness assisted the phenomena. 
They seemed to depend more on the medium's mood. 
If she was in good temper she allowed full light and 
any conditions, and the phenomena were then at their 
best. The seance table would rise a foot or so from 
the floor (after preliminary tiltings with medium's and 
sitters' hands on its upper surface) without any one 
touching it, the medium's hands being meanwhile held 
by one or more of the investigators, either in her lap 
or above the table; and her feet were also watched. 
The light (electric) was sufficient for the reading of 
small print; and the table remained in the air several 
seconds. 

Sometimes Eusapia would hold out her hand (held 
by one of the investigators) towards the curtain, which 
would then balloon out towards her in a round bulge. 
This also happened when one of the investigators held 
out his hand at her request. The bulge collapsed when 
touched. Noises inside the cabinet were frequent, the 
guitar-strings were plucked, the sounds synchronising 
with increased pressure or pinching by Eusapia of the 
hand of the investigator, thus indicating, as many other 
phenomena indicate, that there is often some connexion, 
though a supernormal one, between muscular effort on 
the medium's part and the phenomena that occur. 
Sometimes the objects within the cabinet would be 
brought out and placed on the seance table by unascer- 
tainable means, and touches were felt as if by fingers, 



136 SPIRITUALISM 

on the arms, shoulders, heads, etc., of the sitters, in 
good light, without visible cause. In the darkness of 
the cabinet a greater degree of materialisation was ef- 
fected, and a hand with apparently living fingers could 
be felt through the curtain, Eusapia's hands being out- 
side and fully visible. Sometimes a visible hand came 
from behind the curtain, carrying one of the objects 
placed there; and at other times a head would appear, 
while the medium was in full view and in a fair light. 
On two occasions a cold breeze was felt, apparently is- 
suing from a place on the left of the medium's brow. 
All three investigators felt it, and it was not altered 
when one of them held his hand over her nose and 
mouth. This breeze has been noticed by other experi- 
menters also. 1 And to show that fraud alone is an un- 
satisfactory theory, it must be mentioned that raps, and 
the ringing and movement of a bell in the cabinet, oc- 
curred when Eusapia was not there at all, but appar- 
ently as a result of her "fluid" or influence left behind 
after a visit. 

The upshot was that the three investigators, pre- 
viously sceptical, and by their experience and ability 
probably the best combination that the world could 
provide for such an inquiry, were convinced that some 
supernormal agency was at work. As to the possibility 
of hallucination, which is duly discussed in the Re- 
port, this is improbable when a phenomenon is unex- 

1 "These movements (and, indeed, I may say the same of every kind 
of phenomenon) are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air, some- 
times amounting to a decided wind. I have had sheets of paper blown 
about by it, and a thermometer lowered several degrees. On some 
occasions ... I have not detected any actual movement of the air, 
but the cold has been so intense that I could only compare it to that 
felt when the hand has been within a few inches of frozen mer- 
cury." (Crookes's "Researches," p. 86.) 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 137 

pected and is perceived at the same time by several 
people; moreover, at many sittings with Eusapia the 
hallucination theory has been disproved by photo- 
graphs, the table being shown, for instance, suspended 
in the air without visible support. 

As to ultimate causation, this is supposed to be the 
spirit "John King," but at some sittings, mainly with 
Continental investigators, there have been materialisa- 
tions of deceased friends or relatives of the sitters, 
and more or less evidential messages have been given. 
This, however, goes beyond what can be said to be 
established. A properly cautious statement of the 
Eusapia case seems to be that in her presence there oc- 
curred inexplicable movements of objects and other 
phenomena, in a fashion indicating intelligence, but 
that there is not enough evidence to justify a conclu- 
sion as to its nature. 

The phenomenon of supernormal raps has been stud- 
ied with special care by Dr. Joseph Maxwell of Bor- 
deaux, 1 who was fortunate enough to be acquainted 
with good mediums for this particular phase. (He also 
sat frequently with Eusapia Palladino, and obtained 
levitation of the table without contact, movement of 
sitters' chairs, ballooning of the cabinet curtain, etc.) 
Raps were produced in broad daylight at distances up 
to nine or ten feet from the medium, and they varied in 
tone according to the material against which they were 
produced — table, door, screen, wall, etc. Also they 
were not confined to the seance-room; they were heard 

1 "Metapsychical Phenomena," London, 1905. The author is a doctor 
of medicine and also a lawyer — Deputy Attorney-General at the Court 
of Appeal, Bordeaux. I have myself heard good raps with a psy- 
chical friend (not a professional medium or even a spiritualist) 
who has other powers of "physical phenomena" kind. 



138 SPIRITUALISM 

almost anywhere if the medium was present, and were 
particularly loud before religious pictures in a picture- 
gallery. They spelt out messages by rappings at a 
given letter of the alphabet, and undoubted intelli- 
gence was shown. Dr. Maxwell, however, is not a 
spiritualist, and holds the hypothesis that the persona- 
tion was either the medium's or some sitter's subliminal 
consciousness, or a composite and temporary entity 
made up of a fusion of such subliminals. This idea 
seems reasonable enough, particularly as some of the 
spirits announced themselves to be fairies! Still, the 
question remains open, and some of Dr. Maxwell's re- 
sults certainly suggest very strongly the agency of de- 
ceased human beings. 

Of recent investigation in the physical department 
the most noteworthy is the work of Dr. Crawford of 
Belfast — a doctor of science of Glasgow University 
and a practical engineer. He has been allowed to join 
a family circle (the Golighers') and to investigate scien- 
tifically, imposing his own conditions. There is no 
"professional" element, no payment whatever being 
made : the Golighers are earnest spiritualists who sit as 
a religious rite with hymns and prayers, and the force 
seems to be drawn partly from each member, though 
mainly from Miss Kathleen Goligher, who, however, is 
not in trance but wide awake and greatly interested in 
what is happening. Levitations of the table are ob- 
tained without contact, in a good light, and on one oc- 
casion Sir William Barrett sat on it while it was in the 
air, but could not force it to the ground. Loud raps 
and bangs are produced, and have been registered on 
a phonograph disc, thus proving their objectivity. Mes- 
sages are given by the raps and the alphabet, and the 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 139 

invisible intelligences co-operate willingly and intelli- 
gently with the investigator. Dr. Crawford is now 
convinced that they are human spirits, as claimed; 
and, as to the modus^ he has propounded interesting 
"rod and cantilever" theories which suppose an extru- 
sion of matter in some unknown form from medium 
and sitters. Indeed he seems on the verge of linking 
up the two worlds, establishing a greater continuity 
than hitherto — thus greatly helping belief in these ex- 
traordinary things — by the discovery of some tertium 
quid which will enable us to bridge the gulf. 1 

Here we come to the much-debated phenomenon of 
materialisation, about which, however, I wish to say 
as little as possible. It seems to be rare, and I have not 
seen it for myself. The accounts of partial materiali- 
sations in the presence of Eusapia Palladino are some- 
times impressive, and those of full-form materialisation 
observed by Sir William Crookes and already men- 
tioned (p. 84, Chapter V) are still more so. Professor 
Richet also had fair results with a non-professional 
medium, Marthe Beraud, at Algiers, 2 and Baron von 
Schrenck-Notzing has had similar experiences with the 
same medium. 3 But the matter is not yet settled. The 
phenomena seem probably genuine sometimes, but the 
usual conditions are not good and, moreover, they lend 
themselves to conscious or subconscious deception. For 
the present volume, therefore, what has already been 
said in Chapter V must suffice. 

J "The Reality of Psychic Phenomena," and Sir William Barrett's 
"On the Threshold of the Unseen," p. 48. 

a "De Quelques Phenomenes dits de Materialisation," in "Annales 
des Sciences Psychiques," 1905, pp. 649 and following. 

3 "Materialisationsphanomene" (Ernst Reinhardt, Munich, 1914) and 
"Der Kampf um die Materialisationsphanomene." See also "Proceed- 
ings," S.P.R., vol, xxvii., pp. 333 and following. 



140 SPIRITUALISM 

A curious and rare form of physical mediumship is 
that known as the "direct voice." Mrs. Wriedt of De- 
troit seems to be the only powerful living medium in 
this department. In her presence voices are heard, pur- 
porting to be those of the sitters' deceased relatives, 
even in a good light. A friend of mine once held a long 
conversation with his deceased wife, in his own draw- 
ing-room, while Mrs. Wriedt was having afternoon tea 
at the other end of the room, thirty feet away; and 
the voice — magnified by a trumpet held to my friend's 
ear — was continuous and distinct when Mrs. Wriedt 
was unmistakably eating and drinking. Admiral Us- 
borne Moore describes many evidential incidents of 
Mrs. Wriedt's mediumship. 1 The Mr. William Jef- 
frey of his book is my friend just alluded to. 

Most direct voice sittings, however, are held in dark- 
ness, and the conditions are then unsatisfactory. It 
may be true that darkness is necessary for some psy- 
chical phenomena, as it is for photography; but there 
is every reason to believe that in genuine cases the 
phenomena can be obtained in at least a fair light, suf- 
ficient for the watching of the medium. In complete 
darkness there can be nothing evidential in the mere 
fact of voices or of movement of objects; there must 
be evidential matter said, going beyond the medium's 
knowledge. And this is better obtained in other ways, 
e.g., through a clairvoyant or trance-speaker, when full 
light for note-taking is allowed. Dark sittings are for 
the most part to be deprecated as encouraging fraud 
and perhaps abnormal and pathological states of mind, 
and as yielding little or no satisfactory evidence. 

Something must be said here about "spirit-photo- 

*"The Voices" (London: Watts and Co.) 



PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 141 

graphy," though the subject is exceptionally difficult. 
The literature of this phase of the subject is almost use- 
less, owing to looseness of observation and description ; 
e.g., Miss Georgiana Houghton's "Chronicles of the 
Photographs of Spiritual Beings" (London: E. W. 
Allen, 1882) gives many reproductions of Hudson's 
photographs, but not enough critical detail. It is al- 
leged that in the presence of certain people a photo- 
graphic plate exposed in the ordinary way generally 
shows an "extra" with the sitter. This extra is usually 
a face or head only, usually draped in muslin-like stuff, 
sometimes recognised as a deceased relative but more 
often not. The difficulty is, of course, that it is easy 
enough to "fake" such photographs; but inasmuch as 
the spirit-photographer allows and indeed requests the 
sitter to take his own plates, put them in the slide, and 
develop them after exposure, it is difficult to see how 
the thing can be done fraudulently. Moreover, in some 
cases known to the present writer, the sitter has used 
his own camera as well as his own plates, also hav- 
ing a Kodak expert present. The sitter is an exceed- 
ingly clever amateur conjurer and a business man in a 
large way — not the sort of man to be easily deceived — 
and he had the medium in his (the sitter's) own house. 
Yet the results were successful. At present there seems 
to be only this one "spirit-photographer" in England 
(Mr. Hope of Crewe), and it is much to be desired that 
an investigation should be carried out in such a way 
as to establish the genuineness of the phenomena if 
they are genuine. There is nothing a priori impossible 
about them, for if there is something "there" that re- 
flects invisible but actinic rays while transparent to 
ordinary light rays, it would be photographic. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONFIRMATORY PHENOMENA IN INDIA 

AS already said, these curious phenomena are 
widely distributed, both in space and time, and 
the close agreement in character which we find in the 
phenomena of widely separated countries is a fact which 
is to be noted as an indication that the happenings are 
not likely to be due to trickery. Forms of mere con- 
juring might, surely, be expected to have national char- 
acteristics and to differ as languages do; whereas we 
find that accounts of what we call sittings, though de- 
scribing events in the presence of an Indian fakir who 
knows no English and has never heard of Western 
spiritualism, are almost exact duplicates of — say — a 
report of one of Dr. Crawford's sittings with his Bel- 
fast circle. And the claim is the same. The operators 
are said to be the Pitris — the spirits of departed human 
beings. It may be worth while to illustrate this cor- 
respondence in some detail. 

In a bulky volume, 1 M. Louis Jacolliot, Chief Judge 
of the Chandernagar Tribunal, describes phenomena 
witnessed by himself, under good test conditions. He 
affirms his own complete impartiality as to explana- 
tions, though also admitting the tendency — inevitable 

1 "Le Spiritisme dans le monde: l'initiation et les sciences occultes 
dans Tlnde et chez tous les peuples d'antiquite," Paris, 1875. English 
translation, "Occult Science in India" (London: Rider). 

142 



IN INDIA 143 

in an educated Westerner — to seek naturalistic causes; 
certainly it cannot be said that he was prejudiced in 
favour of belief. But, whatever the causes, the things 
seemed to happen ; and though some of them might be 
attributable to hypnotic hallucination, this is hardly 
possible with all of them. Moreover, no one can rea- 
sonably doubt the objectivity of, e.g. supernormal raps, 
for Dr. Crawford has recorded them on a gramophone. 
Gramophone discs or cylinders are not, so far as we 
are aware, capable of being hypnotised or hallucinated. 

The fakir in question, Covindasamy by name, came 
from the south of Hindustan, and M. Jacolliot made 
friends with him at Benares, mainly by virtue of be- 
ing able to speak his language (Tamil). In conse- 
quence of this he was able to have daily sittings for 
some weeks. 

On the first occasion Covindasamy sat on the ground, 
in bright sunshine, extending his hands towards an im- 
mense bronze vase full of water. (All the sittings were 
held in the palace or grounds of the prince who was 
entertaining M. Jacolliot.) "Within five minutes the 
vase commenced to rock to and fro upon its base, and 
approach the fakir gently and with regular motion. 
As the distance diminished, metallic sounds escaped 
from it, as if some one had struck it with a steel rod. 
At certain times the blows were so numerous and 
quick that they produced a sound similar to that made 
by a hailstorm upon a metal roof." * 

1 Cf. Sir William Crookes in "Researches in the Phenomena of 
Spiritualism," pp. 3-4: "That certain physical phenomena, such as 
the movement of material substances, and the production of sounds re- 
sembling electric discharges, occur under circumstances in which they 
cannot be explained by any physical law at present known, is a fact of 



144 SPIRITUALISM 

M. Jacolliot asked if he might give directions, and 
the vase advanced, receded, or stood still, as he re- 
quested. Similarly, at request, the raps became slow 
and regular like the ticking of a clock, or rapid and 
continuous like the roll of a drum, or one every ten 
seconds — which M. Jacolliot timed — or beating time 
to the tunes of a musical-box. During all this time the 
fakir had neither changed his position nor made any 
movement. Then, rising, he rested the tips of his fin- 
gers for some time on the edge of the vase, which even- 
tually lifted itself into the air three times to a height 
of seven or eight inches. M. Jacolliot states that the 
vase, even when empty, could hardly be moved by two 
men. He took copious notes while the phenomena 
were proceeding, and had each of them repeated in a 
different manner, his requests always being complied 
with at once. 

On another occasion Covindasamy was levitated two 
feet from the ground, with his legs crossed under him, 
Brahmin-fashion, and he remained thus for twenty 
minutes. There was contact with the earth, for he 
rested his right hand on a cane of M. Jacolliot's; but 
this could not possibly have been supporting his whole 
weight, nor could he have maintained equilibrium if 
it had. Before departing, he said he would ask M. 
Jacolliot's friends to manifest themselves to him at 
midnight in his bedroom. M. Jacolliot took elaborate 

which I am as certain as I am of the most elementary fact in chem- 
istry." Also what has just been said about Dr. Maxwell's investi- 
gations, at p. 137 of the present volume. Also the experiments, noted 
carefully on the spot and with no professional medium present, of Dr. 
Alfred Russel Wallace, described in "Miracles and Modern Spiritual- 
ism," p. 133. (1896 ed., Redway. First ed., 1874.) 



IN INDIA 145 

precautions against fraud — searching rooms, sending 
servants out, etc. — but at midnight he heard a number 
of raps which he could not explain. 1 

At another sitting, Covindasamy exactly paralleled 
an experiment with Dr. Crawford's Belfast medium, 
when Sir William Barrett tried in vain to lift a nor- 
mally quite light table. 2 M. Jacolliot had seen some- 
thing of this sort done before, and, taking a small teak- 
wood stand, which he could lift with a finger and 
thumb, he asked the fakir if he could fix it so that it 
could not be moved. Covindasamy placed both hands 
on it, and remained motionless for a quarter of an 
hour, then said: "The spirits have come and nobody 
can remove the table without their permission." M. 
Jacolliot seized it and lifted, or tried to, but it would 
not budge. A piece broke off, so he took hold of the 
legs, which were united by a cross-brace, and tugged 
again, but without success. He then asked Covindas- 
amy to go to the other end of the terrace, about seven 
yards away, and in a few minutes the table was lifted. 
"The Pitris have departed," said the Hindu, "because 
their means of terrestrial communication was broken. 
Listen! they are coming back again." And a shower 
of raps was heard on a copper platter over which Covin- 
dasamy had put his hands. 

Another interesting experiment exactly paralleled 
those which Sir William Crookes carried out with an 
accordion and D. D. Home. M. Jacolliot hung a har- 
moniflute to an iron bar on the terrace by a cord round 

1 "Occult Science in India," pp. 238-9. Cf. p. 136 ante; raps heard 
after Eusapia's departure from the S.P.R. investigator's rooms. 
'Barrett: "On the Threshold of the Unseen," p. 48. 



146 SPIRITUALISM 

the wooden square forming a portion of the bellows, 
and asked the Hindu if he could make it play without 
touching it. Covindasamy at once took the cord be- 
tween the thumb and forefinger of each hand and stood 
motionless. The bellows soon began to be contracted 
and inflated, and notes came; finally the instrument 
played a tune, the Hindu remaining perfectly still and 
M. Jacolliot kneeling down and watching the keys mov- 
ing up and down in accordance with the requirements 
of the melody, though untouched by visible fingers. 
All this time the Hindu never touched the instrument. 

Another time he took a handful of feathers out of 
a vase, threw them into the air above his head, making 
passes underneath them as they fell, whereupon they 
ascended spirally and stuck against the roof -carpet. On 
his departure they fell, and M. Jacolliot left them on 
the floor for some time to assure himself that the thing 
was not hallucinatory. 

But the last two sittings were perhaps the most ex- 
traordinary, as indeed was promised, for the Hindu 
had said he would ask all the Pitris who assisted him 
to come and do all they could. Among other things a 
penholder rose up on its point and wrote in some sand 
— another parallel to a half -successful experiment of 
Sir William Crookes's with Home, described at page 
93 of "Researches,' ' and it not only answered M. Jacol- 
liot's mental questions, but also gave correctly the first 
word of the fifth line of the twenty-first page — as asked 
for — of a closed book. 1 Covindasamy had his hands 
extended horizontally, and did not touch the penholder 

1 Stainton Moses's guides gave him similar tests. 



IN INDIA 147 

with any part of his body while it was writing. It was 
broad daylight at the time — about ten o'clock in the 
morning. 

The last sitting was at night, but the lamp gave suf- 
ficient light for small print to be read in any part 
of the room. Covindasamy discarded even the loin- 
cloth which usually was his only garment, sat down on 
the floor and began incantations. (Perhaps these serve 
to render the mind passive and conditions good, like the 
singing at some spiritualistic sittings.) Presently a 
phosphorescent cloud formed in the middle of the room. 
Hands, at first vaporous and then more material, 
showed themselves, some luminous and transparent, 
some opaque and casting a shadow. Sixteen of these 
were counted, moving about rapidly. One of them 
came and pressed M. Jacolliot's hand, feeling small, 
supple, and life-like; the hand of a young woman. 
"The spirit is present, though one of its hands is alone 
visible," said Covindasamy. "You can speak to it, if 
you wish." M. Jacolliot asked for a souvenir; the 
hand faded out of his grasp, flew to a bouquet, plucked 
a rosebud, threw it at his feet, and vanished. 1 

Other hands appeared, tracing letters in the air in 
luminous characters, which vanished when the last let- 
ter was written. One of the messages, written in San- 
scrit, was: "You will attain happiness when you lay 
aside this perishable body." Finally, there was a full- 
form materialisation of an old Brahmin priest, whose 

1 Cf. Crookes : "In the light I have seen a luminous cloud hover 
over a heliotrope on a side table, break a sprig off, and carry the sprig 
to a lady; and on some occasions I have seen a similar luminous 
cloud visibly condense to the form of a hand and carry small objects 
about." "Researches," p. 91. 



148 SPIRITUALISM 

hands Mr. Jacolliot took, finding them warm and life- 
like, and whom he asked : "Are you really a former in- 
habitant of the earth?" Immediately the word "Am" 
flashed out in fiery letters on the Brahmin's breast. 
He then "faded away before my eyes." 

The sitting had lasted several hours. Covindasamy 
was covered with perspiration and much exhausted. 

On another occasion, at Pondicherry, with a dif- 
ferent fakir, M. Jacolliot had evidence of the agency 
of one of his own departed friends. Leaves with 
holes in the middle were impaled on perpendicular 
sticks supported in pots of earth, and after some wait- 
ing and an invocation, a cool breeze was felt; then 
the leaves began to ascend and descend on the sticks. 
By calling out the alphabet, and the leaves moving at 
the right letter, a message was spelt out: 

"Alban Brunier, died at Bourg-en-Cresse (Ain), 
January 3rd, 1856." All this was correct. M. Jacol- 
liot carried out many tests, e.g. passing and repassing 
in the space between the fakir and the pots of earth, 
but there was no interruption in the movement of the 
leaves. No normal means of doing the trick were 
discoverable. The fakir said, as they all say, that 
spirits or ancestral shades were the agents. M. Jacol- 
liot, who knew little of Spiritualism, was incredulous 
but baffled, and he leaves it at that. 

The Brahmanic scheme is somewhat like that of An- 
drew Jackson Davis. God is the whole, the soul is an 
atom which undergoes progressive transformation on 
its purificatory way back to the eternal source. And, 
as we have seen, on the phenomenal side also it seems 



IN INDIA 149 

certain that the things known as spiritualistic in the 
West are identical or closely parallel with those said 
to occur in India among people who know nothing of 
history over here. 



CHAPTER X 

GHOSTS 

FOR the last century or two it has been fashion- 
able to laugh at "ghost stories"; but it is now 
becoming clear — as indeed might have been surmised 
in the case of so persistent a belief — that "ghosts" are 
facts in Nature, though very unusual facts, like globu- 
lar lightning, and not yet fully understood. By 
"ghost" we mean, for the moment, the perception of 
a deceased human being who is not "there" in any 
known physical way. In order to avoid the romantic 
and frivolous associations of the popular term, the 
S.P.R. calls such percepts "hallucinations," a halluci- 
nation being, in Gurney's phrase, "a percept which 
lacks, but which can only by distinct reflection be recog- 
nised as lacking, the objective basis which it suggests." 
This covers experiences of other senses as well as that 
of sight, and indeed there is plenty of evidence for 
ghosts of sounds, touches (as in the haunting of John 
Wesley's parental home, pp. 126, 127), and even 
smells, when nothing is seen. But the majority of such 
occurrences seem to be of visual type; namely, ghosts 
in the ordinary sense. 

Soon after the founding of the S.P.R. that body 
made a determined attempt to reach some really scien- 
tific conclusion on this matter by a laborious collection 

150 



GHOSTS 151 

of data. A committee was appointed, consisting of 
Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, 
Mr. Frank Podmore, and Miss Alice Johnson (Secre- 
tary to the Society), with Dr. A. T. Myers's help on 
the medical question as to the influence of ill-health in 
causing hallucinations. An army of 410 collectors 
gratuitously assisted the committee, and in the three 
years from April, 1889, t0 May, 1892, 17,000 answers 
were received from people to whom the carefully pre- 
pared questionnaire had been sent. The collating of 
this huge mass of testimony was naturally a great task, 
and many interesting features of it cannot even be 
glanced at here. Readers are referred to the masterly 
digest and summing up in the "Proceedings" of the 
S.P.R., vol. x.; or, for similar matter, to "Phantasms 
of the Living," which has been reissued in abridged 
form. 1 Suffice it to say that the committee expressed 
its considered opinion that "between deaths and ap- 
paritions of the dying person a connection exists which 
is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved 
fact. The discussion of its full implications cannot 
be estimated in this paper; nor, perhaps, exhausted in 
this age." 2 

One case may be quoted as illustration. Mr. S. 
Walker-Anderson, living in Australia, woke up be- 
tween 9 and 12 o'clock on the night of November 17th, 

1890, and saw the figure of his aunt P , standing 

"near the foot of the bed at one side, dressed in an 

1 Edited by Mrs. Sidgwick (Kegan Paul). The compilers, deter- 
mined to err on the side of caution, assumed that even when the ap- 
parition followed the death, it might be due to an impulse sent out 
before; hence the title. 

2 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. x., p. 394. 



152 SPIRITUALISM 

ordinary black dress such as he had seen her in many 
times. She looked older and stouter than when he 
last saw her three years before. She seemed to speak, 
i.e., he saw the lips move, though he heard no sound, 
and he seemed to catch that she meant 'good-bye.' 
Then the figure gradually vanished." 1 The appear- 
ance was quite solid and life-like and lasted about 
twenty seconds. Mr. Walker-Anderson told his wife 
in the morning, and made a note: "I believe Aunt 

P died on the 17th." He had no reason to expect 

it, for, though she had not been very well, there was 
no thought of serious illness. It turned out, however, 
that she had died, in England, two or three hours be- 
fore the time of the apparition. Mrs. Walker-An- 
derson confirmed her husband's narrative. Professor 
Sidgwick interviewed both, and the S.P.R. verified 
the date of Mrs. P.'s death. Similar cases, in one of 
which the percipient saw his mother, have been re- 
ported by the present writer. 2 These things, like other 
psychic phenomena, occur in all places and periods. 
Ben Jonson, staying in the country with Sir Robert 
Cotton, had a vision of his eldest son "with a bloody 
cross on his forehead." It turned out that the boy 
had died of the plague, in London. 

The supposition of the real agency of the dead, in 
some at least of these cases, is supported by the fact 
that apparitions of living people have been produced 
experimentally. Mr. S. H. Beard, for instance, caused 
his phantasm to be seen by two young ladies living 
three miles away. Expectation does not account for 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. x., pp. 211-12-13. 
a "Man is a Spirit," pp. 133-5, etc « 



GHOSTS 153 

it, for he says : "I had not mentioned in any way my 
intention of trying this experiment, for the simple 
reason that it was only on retiring to rest upon 
this Sunday night that I made up my mind to do so. 
The time at which I determined I would be there was 
one o'clock in the morning. . . . On the following 
Thursday I went to see the ladies in question, and in 
the course of conversation (without any allusion to the 
subject on my part), the elder one told me that on the 
previous Sunday night she had been much terrified by 
perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that she 
screamed when the apparition advanced towards her, 
and awoke her little sister, who saw me also." * The 
time was about one o'clock in the morning, and the per- 
cipients were quite sure that they were wide awake. 
Mr. Beard says : "Besides exercising my power of voli- 
tion very strongly, I put forth an effort which I cannot 
find words to describe. I was conscious of a mysterious 
influence of some sort permeating in my body, and had 
a distinct impression that I was exercising some force 
with which I had been hitherto unacquainted, but 
which I can now at certain times set in motion at 
will." 2 The full account is given by Mr. Myers, with 
the first-hand narratives of the two precipients. In his 
pages the agent appears as "S. H. B.," but Mr. Beard 
kindly allows me to give his name. He also confirms 
the accuracy of the account. If then an apparition in 
a case like this is demonstrably due to the agency of the 
human being who is perceived, it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that apparitions of the dead may be caused by 
the person appearing, in the same way. It cannot 

1 Myers, "Human Personality," vol. i., p. 293. 2 Loc. cit. 



154 SPIRITUALISM 

be proved, because the deceased person is not here to 
be questioned; but it is reasonable, particularly in view 
of the fact that survival is indicated by a mass of quite 
other evidence. 

One objection may be urged, that an apparition oc- 
curring soon after a death may be the result of a 
thought sent out before death, which, however, did 
not reach the percipient at once; or, if it did, did not 
immediately rise to the surface of his consciousness. 
This is known as the theory of deferred or latent tele- 
pathy, and is a legitimate guess ; but it becomes difficult 
to accept it in cases of apparitions of long-dead people. 
In these latter cases, however, the death is usually 
known to the percipient, and may, therefore, be a sub- 
jective hallucination. But this, again, is negatived 
when the spirit gives information which was not known 
to the percipient, as has happened in a few cases. The 
whole subject is a difficult one, requiring much further 
study and accumulation of data; but the evidence is 
certainly tending towards a face-value interpretation 
of many of these happenings. 

The ghost proper, however, is perhaps a ghost at- 
tached to a definite place rather than appearing at the 
time of death ; and here, again, there is good evidence. 
Whatever be the exact explanation, the fact of the 
existence of houses which are, in the popular term, 
haunted, is not doubted by experienced investigators. 
Several accounts of this kind of thing are on record, 
notably the case of "Capt. Morton's," where an ap- 
parition was seen by seven different people, who made 
first-hand statements of their experiences. Mr. Myers 
visited the house and saw at least four of the witnesses. 



GHOSTS 155 

The case is too long to describe here, but it seems con- 
clusive for the occurrence of something supernormal, 
if human testimony is fco be believed. 1 

Admittedly it does not seem probable that in these 
cases the ghost is "all there." Mr. Beard did not know 
how his phantasm had behaved, nor, indeed, whether 
it had appeared at all, until he heard the percipient's 
account. Similarly, a dead person may not know when 
his phantom has appeared. Indeed, he may not con- 
sciously will it to appear. Myers has suggested that 
sometimes these experiences may be the dreams of the 
dead, which, from some cause unknown to us, occa- 
sionally become perceptible; or, they may not be even 
dreams. Ovid, no doubt regroducing a belief of his 
own or some rather earlier time, describes the umbra 
as flitting round the tomb, though the spirit is really 
elsewhere. Lytton, in his story, "The Haunters and 
the Haunted," develops this theory that apparitions 
are not necessarily spirits or souls, but are the eidola 
of the dead. 2 Similarly with the ha of the Egyptians. 3 
And the Theosophists have their doctrine of astral 
shells. On the whole, however, it would seem that 
there is some connection, varying in degree in differ- 
ent cases. The apparition is not the whole self of the 
person; but it is really representative of him, and 
would not be there if he himself were not in existence 
somewhere. It is an echo or a reflection, or a rever- 

1 "Human Personality," vol. ii., pp. 389-96, and "Proceedings," 
viii., pp. 311-32. In my "Man is a Spirit" a case is quoted in which 
the apparition was seen by seven different people. 

2 Cf. "Iliad," xxiii., 72; ^schylus, "Prom.," 568. 

3 Renouf's "Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as 
Illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt" (Hibbert Lectures), pp. 
148 and following. 



156 SPIRITUALISM 

beration, or a shadow (as in Plato's cave-analogy), 
or a small outlying creek of his personality. All meta- 
phors no doubt fail; but we must visualise these hap- 
penings in some such way for the present, as a tem- 
porary way of assimilating them to normal experience. 

The phenomena just referred to are spontaneous, 
in the sense that they occur unexpectedly and un- 
sought, perhaps partly in consequence of an effort of 
will from the other side and partly in consequence 
of some exceptionally receptive state in the percipient ; 
e.g. the mental quiescence and absence of sense-stimu- 
lation of a person just awaking from ordinary sleep. 
But some can achieve such a receptive state, in greater 
or less degree, at will. By becoming passive and not 
attending to physical sights and sounds, they become 
perceptive of another order of existence, and see into 
the spiritual world. We call these people "normal 
clairvoyants," because they are clairvoyant without 
surrendering their normal consciousness and going into 
trance. Probably normal clairvoyants, who give sit- 
tings to all comers, are apt to let their own imagina- 
tion work when the true gleams do not come, and this 
may occur involuntarily and without conscious fraud. 
It seems probable that many semi-mediums cannot dis- 
tinguish between the product of their own subliminal 
imagination and true perception of other-side realities. 

One medium known to me, however, is endowed 
with the power of distinguishing, and consequently 
will not sit for all comers. He will give an occasional 
sitting to friends, on the understanding that he prom- 
ises nothing, that he will describe what he sees, but 
will sit silent or talk of other things if he sees noth- 



GHOSTS [157 

ing. A long series of sittings under these conditions 
has convinced me that he has genuine power, in gleams 
and not entirely at command, of seeing into the other 
world; further, that the perception is a sort of double- 
factored affair, dependent on the will and act of some 
spirit as well as on the perception of the medium. And 
it often happens that the spirits who are seen are the 
near relatives or dear friends of some person — quite 
unknown to the medium — who is dying. They have 
come to meet their friend, and, being in our regions, 
are perceptible either by their mere presence there or 
— as is evident in some cases — by a definite effort on 
their part. The following may serve as illustrative 
of this kind of evidence: 

At a sitting on July 21st, 1914, the medium (Mr. 
Wilkinson) said that an old gentleman named Leather 
was present; had been a very gentlemanly and rather 
retiring man. Mr. Wilkinson hesitated to say the 
name, for he had never heard of it as such before; it 
meant to him only the material of which boots, etc., 
are made. But it was quite correct, and other identity- 
evidence was obtained. I had known Mr. Leather 
very well; but I gave the medium no information ex- 
cept that I recognised the person. On November 18th, 
1914, Mr. Wilkinson wrote to me from Bournemouth, 
asking whether I had known some old gentleman 
named Parrbury, probably Robert; a man who had re- 
tained his faculties almost to the last, and who ap- 
peared to be keenly interested in me. Apparently 
Wilkinson did not see anything, but got these impres- 
sions. At first I could make no sense of them; but I 
soon found that Robert Parberry (which latter Wil- 



158 SPIRITUALISM 

kinson had taken for a surname, also spelling it 
wrongly, apparently from the sound heard clairaudi- 
ently), were Mr. Leather's first two names. Next 
time I saw Mr. Wilkinson he told me that the "Robert 
Parbury" he had mentioned was waiting about for 
an old friend to pass over; that was why he was in 
these regions. The fact was that Mr. Leather's closest 
friend — an intimate of fifty years' standing — was 
dying; he departed on November 29th, 1914; and I 
am sure he would be very glad to be met by his old 
chum. At a later sitting the two came together; but 
I have heard nothing of them since, and no doubt 
they are going on ahead now. The medium had never 
heard of either of the two men; they lived in another 
town, and had for a long time lived retired lives, being 
well over eighty at death. Both knew me well. 1 

On another occasion, February 17th, 1916, our late 
minister turned up at a sitting, and it was indicated 
that he had come to meet some old woman, over 
eighty, who had been failing gradually. As a matter 
of fact, his widow had died two days before, some dis- 
tance away, and the funeral was fixed for the day 
after the sitting. Apparently she had not yet got quite 
away, and was probably in the post-mortem sleep or 
rest which seems to occur before the spirit turns to its 
new course; and her husband, whom I had known 
well, and who had died in 1900, was looking after 
her and waiting about until she was ready to go on 
with him. 2 This fact of dying people being met is 

1 "Psychical Investigations," p. 15, etc. 

2 Ibid., p. 29. If it is urged that these incidents may have been due 
to a reading of my mind, I reply that in many cases unknown spirits 
have been named and described — people I had never heard of — and 



GHOSTS 159 

further borne out by their own experiences, for they 
frequently see the forms of their welcoming friends. I 
have given several first-hand cases which have been 
sent to me, in my other volume just alluded to. As 
death approaches, the veil grows thin and rends, the 
dying person's spiritual sight is opened, and he sees 
what our clogged senses cannot see. 1 

Ghosts, then — representations of the bodily form 
of a deceased person, usually looking natural and life- 
like — are seen ( 1 ) occasionally, anywhere by ordinary 
people, when some relative or friend dies; (2) locally, 
by ordinary people, at places which have a special in- 
terest for some departed person; (3) almost anywhere 
and at almost any time, though not entirely at will, 
by specially-endowed people whom we call sensitives 
or mediums. And the fact that living people can 
sometimes project their visible phantasm is an indica- 
tion that phantasms of the dead may be similarly 
willed by the dead person who appears. But in all 
such cases the phantasm represents only a part of the 
consciousness which has produced it. 

As to the "materiality" of these forms, it probably 
differs in different cases. Sometimes the perception 

they turned out to have been friends of the spirit who was said to have 
brought them. Apparently my friends on the other side, realising my 
desire for evidence which shall exclude mind-reading hypotheses, have 
deliberately and successfully planned such evidence. 

1 Sometimes a clairvoyant person present will see the same thing, 
thus negativing the subjective-hallucination theory. Several cases of 
the kind are described in a little book called "The Ministry of An- 
gels," by A Hospital Nurse (London: G. Bell and Sons, Limited, 
1918), whose testimony confirms this idea that dying people are met 
by welcoming friends. The nurse is clairvoyant, and described spirits 
who were unknown to her but who were recognised as relatives or 
friends of the departing one, who also saw them. 



160 SPIRITUALISM 

may be non-physical, between discarnate and incarnate 
spirit, in other cases there may be something external 
though not sufficiently near the state of ordinary mat- 
ter to be perceptible to those without exceptional sen- 
sitivity (as there are high-pitched sounds which few 
can hear), and in others the form may be objective and 
material enough to be seen by anyone. We know very 
little yet about this part of the subject, and can only 
theorise tentatively; but analogies support some such 
idea of gradation. 



CHAPTER XI 

ON EVIDENCE, PROOF, AND BELIEF 

IT seems, then, to be admitted by most investigators 
that the main spiritualistic claim of human sur- 
vival and possible communication is true. Opinions 
differ about this or that incident and its interpreta- 
tion, but most of the S.P.R. investigators believe that 
communication is a fact; not a common fact, a much 
rarer one than many think, but still a fact. Mrs. 
Sidgwick, probably the most cautious among the 
S.P.R. workers, states emphatically her complete con- 
viction that some supernormal explanation of Mrs. 
Piper's phenomena is required, and that evidence from 
other quarters has recently been obtained, "tending, in 
my opinion, decidedly to support the hypothesis of 
communication from the dead." 1 And, later: "I must 
admit that the general effect of the evidence on my 
own mind is that there is co-operation with us by 
friends and former fellow-workers no longer in the 
body" (page 256). And the Right Hon. Gerald W. 
Balfour similarly says: "The scripts which we owe 
to the group of automatists, of whom Mrs. Verrall, 
Miss Verrall, and Mrs. Willett are the chief, go back 
for many years now, and require to be considered to- 
gether and as a whole. A long and laborious study 

1 "Proceedings," vol. xxviii., pp. 6, 7. 
161 



162 SPIRITUALISM 

of them carried on from this point of view has brought 
me slowly but surely to a conviction that there is 
much in them that cannot be satisfactorily explained 
except upon the spiritistic hypothesis." * 

It may therefore be asked, and many of us have been 
asked, rather impatiently, "What, then, is the differ- 
ence between a spiritualist and a psychical researcher 
who believes in survival and communication ?" And 
admittedly the two classes do shade into each other. 
But also they shade away from each other, and we 
may indicate a sort of average specific difference. 

The difference is fundamentally a difference of tem- 
per or attitude, leading, of course, to different belief 
on points of detail. The spiritualist, once convinced, 
tends to accept things afterwards very much at their 
face value. All trance controls, for example, seem 
to be accepted as spirits ; no attempt, or no determined 
attempt, is made to test them. And the same with 
normal clairvoyance. A medium will say: "I see Mrs. 
Smith [a friend who died some time ago, and who was 
known to the speaker] standing by you," and it is ac- 
cepted by the spiritualist that Mrs. Smith is there. 
Similarly with planchette-writing and the like. 

The psychical researcher is of a more inquiring turn 
of mind. Like Iago (I admit that the comparison 
is odious) he is nothing if not critical. He wants 
proof that Mrs. Smith is there. He may have the full- 
est confidence in the seer's genuineness, but the mere 
fact of the vision is not enough. It may be only a 
hallucination, a sort of externalised dream. Some 
evidence of identity is required; some message from 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xxvii., p. 236. 



ON EVIDENCE 163 

Mrs. Smith which is somehow characteristic of her, and 
which cannot reasonably be supposed to emanate from 
the mind, conscious or subconscious, of the seer, or in- 
deed of others. 

One of the principal difficulties in the way of ad- 
mitting an element of supernormality — whether telep- 
athy, clairvoyance, or communication from the dead — 
is the unknown reach of subliminal memory. It is 
certain that in some of us, and probably in all, there 
is a mental region of which we are not conscious. To 
take an ordinary illustration: most of us have had 
the experience of forgetting a name, yet being able to 
say: "I should know it if I heard it," which seems to 
indicate that something in us knows it all along. In 
a similar experience of my own, I had forgotten and 
was trying to remember the name of a certain hotel 
at Blackpool. The name had entirely escaped me. 
After vain efforts to recall it, I remembered — although 
I still failed to capture the name — that there was an- 
other hotel of the same name in London, and I knew 
which it was, i.e. I could visualise its exterior. Then, 
running over the names of London's best known ho- 
tels, I remembered that this was the Metropole, which 
was the word required. Apparently some part of my 
mind knew what I was wanting, and, being unable to 
send the information up to my conscious levels by 
ordinary means, resorted to a round-about way, suc- 
cessfully. 

Going a step farther, to things forgotten over a long 
period, the famous case occurs to one, of the servant 
girl who, in delirium, spoke Hebrew and Greek, which 
she was not supposed to know, but which (so it was 



164 SPIRITUALISM 

said), she had picked up by hearing her old master, a 
scholar, reading or declaiming his favourite authors 
aloud. This story, however, though often quoted, is 
very insufficiently evidenced. Its source is Coleridge's 
"Biographia Literaria," I. 117, and he says, "It oc- 
curred in a Roman Catholic town in Germany a year 
or two before my arrival in Gottingen." But it does 
not appear that Coleridge met either the girl or any- 
one who had investigated the case; his story seems 
to have been based on gossip. No names are given, 
either of the girl, the investigators, the scholar, or 
even the town. The story may be true, but obviously 
the evidence for it is practically nil. 

There are, however, a few fairly well-evidenced 
cases of the kind on record, one of them in the Lancet 
of June 14th, 1902. Dr. Henry Freeborn there de- 
scribes the illness of an elderly lady who, in delirium, 
spoke Hindustani. The fact was that she had been 
born in India and had spoken Hindustani only up to 
the age of four; after that, not at all. Consequently, 
long before the time of her illness, when she was sev- 
enty years old, she had forgotten all except a very few 
words of the language. Yet in the delirium she spoke 
it fluently, and quoted poetry of the kind repeated to 
children by Indian ayahs. 1 

Moreover, there is evidence from hypnotic experi- 
mentation and from the curious phenomena of multi- 
ple personality, to show that subliminal memory is 
wider than the memory of the normal consciousness. 
Consequently, in all psychical phenomena such as au- 
tomatic writing, trance speech, and the like, we must 

^'Journal," S.P.R., vol. xi., pp. 279-83. 



ON EVIDENCE 165 

be reasonably sure that the information given by or 
through the automatist, has never been in his mind at 
all. I was surprised recently, when looking through 
some reviews of ten years ago, to find how completely 
I had forgotten many books which I had reviewed ; for- 
gotten both the books and everything I had written 
about them. In a few cases the review had a certain 
dim familiarity about it, but in most cases it was en- 
tirely strange, and my name at the foot came as a 
shock. Yet, on the basis of some hypnotic experi- 
mentation it seems not unreasonable to believe that 
somewhere in my subliminal I retain knowledge of 
those reviews and of many other things completely 
forgotten; and if such things appeared in my auto- 
matic writing — if I were an automatist, which I am 
not— I might honestly but erroneously say that I had 
never known them. There is a case on record in 
which an ostensible spirit named "Blanche Poynings" 
communicated through the automatic script of a non- 
professional automatist, and a great deal of the his- 
torical matter given was new to the normal conscious- 
ness of the automatist, also going beyond the knowl- 
edge of the investigators, yet turning out true. This 
seemed seriously evidential of the agency of some ex- 
ternal mind, but it was eventually found that 
"Blanche Poynings ,, was a character in a historical 
novel which had been read aloud to the automatist 
many years before. She had quite forgotten it, but 
evidently her subliminal had retained the details very 
completely. Practically all the historical facts given 
in the script were contained in the book, and there 
seems no reason to doubt that the book was the source 



166 SPIRITUALISM 

of the messages. Subliminals seem to personate auto- 
matically; to think themselves external spirits. In a 
way, this is not surprising, for they are — so to speak 
— halfway houses or connecting links with the spirit- 
ual world. They adjoin our consciousnesses on this 
side and the spiritual world on the other. 

Great care, therefore, is necessary as to what we say 
to sensitives who are helping us in experimentation; 
also close knowledge of their lives, their reading, their 
associations, in order to estimate the probability or 
improbability of this or that piece of knowledge ever 
having reached them through normal channels. Most 
investigators who have the opportunity of working 
with a good sensitive are ultimately convinced that 
subliminal memory is not sufficient to explain all the 
matter given, and that some supernormal agency must 
be invoked. My own investigations leave me clear 
on this point. And if supernormal agency must be 
invoked, it is possible that some of the doubtful things 
may rightly be attributed thereto, though we exclude 
them as non-evidential because of the possibility of the 
medium's having at some time or other known them. 
I think this is so. But it is well to err on the safe side, 
and to allow liberal scope to subliminal memory, set- 
ting aside as non-evidential anything that the sensitive 
may reasonably be supposed to have ever known; 
though I must affirm that in my friend Wilkinson's 
case I have never found any reason to believe that 
the phenomena were due either to his subliminal knowl- 
edge or, indeed, to any mind-reading. He evidently 
has an exceptional power of keeping the channels 
clear and eliminating this-side influences. And here 



ON EVIDENCE 167 

we may point out that mind-reading has never been 
proved; it is quite a different thing from telepathic 
experiments in which the thought-transmission is willed 
by the sender. 

As to trance-controls, some of them do give real 
evidence, either on their own account, as with G. P., 
or on behalf of others whom they ostensibly hunt up 
on the other side, as with Dr. Phinuit. But many 
others, of the second-rate medium type, never produce 
any evidence at all, even of subliminal and wider 
memory. They talk religious or other platitudes, and 
are uninteresting to the psychical researcher. The 
spiritualist tends to accept the difference of personality 
— the obvious change from the medium's normal self 
— as sufficient basis for belief that the agency really 
is another mind. But in face of what we know of 
multiple personality, it is rash to accept face-value 
interpretations. The researcher suspends judgment, 
unless knowledge is shown which goes beyond what can 
reasonably be attributed to the medium. 

As to the nature of controls in general, psychical 
researchers themselves are divided. Some of the more 
spiritualistic, no doubt, accept any control as a real 
spirit if it can produce evidence of its identity, as in 
the case of G. P. ; or even if, though unable to do this, 
it is vouched for by other spirits who do so establish 
their identity, as with Phinuit, who was vouched for 
by G. P. Other researchers, more cautious, accept 
G. P. because of his first-hand evidence, but suspend 
judgment as to Phinuit; though this results in a rather 
difficult position, in view of G. P.'s certificate that 
Phinuit is as real a spirit as himself. Finally, the ex- 



168 SPIRITUALISM 

tremely cautious wing of the S.P.R. — represented by 
Mrs. Sidgwick — regards all controls as secondary per- 
sonalities of the medium, though real spirits are there 
in the background, telephoning through the secondary 
personality, which provides an instrument or channel. 
Which is right it is for psychological analysis to settle, 
such as Mrs. Sidgwick has done in the case of Mrs. 
Piper. 1 The question is not important from the spirit- 
ualistic point of view, if the main contention of sur- 
vival and communication is admitted. 

The matter of what constitutes sufficient proof — a 
matter which has to be decided by each person — 
brings up the question of the nature of proof in gen- 
eral, with regard to these phenomena. We are some- 
times requested to produce "crucial cases." This is 
impossible. It is even more impossible than some of 
our critics think. They sometimes say they would ac- 
cept as proof something which we, as a matter of fact, 
would not. It is curious to find that the sceptics' 
standard of evidence is lower than ours, but so it is. 
A certain Canon, lecturing at Sheffield University, is 
reported to have said: "If a medium could reveal a 
message written by a person before death and placed 
in a sealed envelope in a safe, then the proof would 
be absolute." 2 But it would not. The Canon's 
standard of evidence is much too low. We could never 
be sure that the person in question had not mentioned 

1 "Proceedings," S.P.R., vol. xxviii. There may indeed be truth in 
both views. Some controls may be secondary aspects of the medium's 
mind, others may be external minds; and one may merge into the 
other, a spirit advancing from distant telepathy to full possession 
of the medium. 

2 Sheffield Daily Telegraph, October 24, 1917. 



ON EVIDENCE 169 

to someone else what he had written, and, if he had, 
telepathy from this someone would account for the 
message. Even if we did believe that the dead person 
had not mentioned it, there is still the possibility that 
he might have unconsciously "telepathed" it to some 
one before his death, this latter person then telepath- 
ing it to the medium. True, these suppositions are 
rather far-fetched, and in cases where knowledge is 
revealed which, so far as we know, was not possessed 
by any living mind, it is admissible to say that the 
evidence is strong. The Benja case in "Human Per- 
sonality" (vol. ii., page 182), is a case in point, the 
message revealing the contents of a sealed letter and 
the whereabouts of a half-brick which Benja had hid- 
den before his death, for the express purpose of a test. 
The evidence is strong; but it is not absolute proof, for 
there is still true clairvoyance of living people to be 
reckoned with, i.e. power to discover hidden objects by 
unknown perception-methods. Our critics, while be- 
lieving us too credulous, are really much more cred- 
ulous than we are! They would believe, or at least 
this Canon apparently would believe, on evidence 
which would not convince us. 

The "proof" of survival must always be cumulative. 
It cannot be of the knock-down kind, for it is never 
possible to exclude all other hypotheses. The survival 
hypothesis may seem the most reasonable, but no 
psychical researcher will say it is the only possible one. 
It is a question of heaping up data until the tendency 
of the whole is seen, as in all other inductive sciences. 
It cannot be proved by a crucial test that the earth is 
spheroid or that it goes round the sun; indeed there 



iyo SPIRITUALISM 

are flat-earth and fixed-earth cranks still in existence, 
who cannot be called insane. Our beliefs in these mat- 
ters — where they are not the result of mere acceptance 
of authority, as they really are in most cases — are 
based not on a crucial test, but on a large mass of 
accumulated observations. So with psychical observa- 
tions. To say that absolute proof can be supplied by 
one incident is to show complete failure to understand 
not only the canons of evidence in psychical research, 
but the canons of evidence in inductive science gen- 
erally. 

This, however, need not dismay us. Science goes 
slowly and tentatively, but it has achieved great re- 
sults in the investigation of the material world, and 
we may legitimately hope that the same methods may 
yield great results in the investigation of the spiritual 
world. Moreover, on this question of proof and evi- 
dence it is encouraging to note the attitude of the law, 
which deals specially with these things. The lawyers 
tell us that a mass of testimony from a number of 
different people, even though no two accounts are ex- 
actly alike, may be better evidence than the narrative 
of an actual eye-witness. 

"For instance: the question for a jury to determine 
is the identity of A, who is alleged to have shot B. 
A witness, C, may come forward and swear that in 
broad daylight he saw A fire the fatal shot. In a sense 
this seems the most cogent proof possible; but in fact 
it is not so. C may have an interest in getting rid 
of A, and may be willing to perjure himself to accom- 
plish his object. This, of course, is analogous to the 
hypothesis of deliberate fraud as applied to our experi- 



ON EVIDENCE 171 

ments. Again : C may have very defective vision and 
may be only mistaken in swearing to the identification. 
This would correspond to mal-observation in our ex- 
periments. But if, on the other hand, it is by inde- 
pendent witnesses proved that shortly before the mur- 
der A purchased a revolver, that the bullet found in 
the body exactly resembled others found in A's pos- 
session, that footprints of a peculiar character were 
discovered leading to and from the spot where the 
shot was fired and were found to correspond to the 
marks made by boots known to have been worn by A 
at the time, and so on; though not one of these facts 
taken alone would be quite convincing, their cumula- 
tive force might well be overwhelming and might 
justify a much more confident verdict of 'guilty' than 
the mere unsupported testimony of C, however clear." 1 

Coercive proof, then — proof that cannot be resisted 
— is impossible; even in mathematics it is the same, 
for you cannot prove that 2 + 2 = 4 if the determined 
sceptic refuses to add. And circumstantial evidence, 
though it may seem to many investigators strong 
enough to justify belief, will naturally be estimated 
differently by different minds. Here we come to the 
psychology of belief, which is perhaps worth glanc- 
ing at. 

Belief is a mental state which depends on many fac- 
tors. The principal one is the mind that happens to be 
concerned. When, for instance, we present to a sceptic 
a psychical case so well evidenced that he is unable 
to find a satisfactory way out, we are apt to think that 

Presidential address, to the S.P.R., by Mr. H. Arthur Smith, "Pro- 
ceedings," vol. xxiv., p. 342. 



172 SPIRITUALISM 

he ought to believe, and to expect him to believe ; and 
when he doesn't, we reproach him for irrationality and 
pigheadedness. But we are wrong, through failure 
to understand the psychology of belief. Hear Profes- 
sor James on the subject: 

"A new idea or a fact which would entail extensive 
rearrangement of the previous system of beliefs is 
always ignored or extruded from the mind in case it 
cannot be sophistically interpreted so as to tally har- 
moniously with the system. We have all conducted 
discussions with middle-aged people, overpowered 
them with our reasons, forced them to admit our con- 
tention, and a week later found them back as secure 
and constant in their old opinion as if they had never 
conversed with us at all. We call them old fogies; 
but there are young fogies too. Old-fogyism begins 
at a younger age than we think. I am almost afraid 
to say so, but I believe that in the majority of human 
beings it begins at about twenty-five." 1 

I know that this is so, from my own experience. 
Many years ago, when I was quite ignorant of spirit- 
ualism and psychical research, I was informed by the 
wife of a friend of mine that she had received a cor- 
rect diagnosis of her state of health from a medium 
who purported to be controlled by the spirit of a de- 
ceased medical man; further, that the herbs prescribed 
had cured her. In any ordinary matter I should have 
accepted her word with the fullest trust; for she and 
her husband have been intimately known to me for half 
a lifetime. But, curiously enough, though I did not 
doubt her integrity, and though I had a high opinion 

1 "Talks to Teachers," pp. 160-1. 



ON EVIDENCE 173 

of her intelligence, I was not in the slightest degree 
impressed by her statements. They went like water off 
a duck's back, as the saying is. My attention was not 
permanently arrested; my mind afforded no lodgment 
to the narrative. If I did think of the matter at all, 
at times other than when she spoke of it, I probably 
thought, in dim fashion, that perhaps facial appear- 
ance had guided the medium to a correct diagnosis 
(our friend vigorously denied that she had given any 
verbal indication), that the ailment was a common one 
and a successful guess therefore not unlikely, and that 
a small amount of herbal knowledge might explain 
the cure. My unbelief or indifference was the natural 
and inevitable consequence of the absence of knowledge 
or interests wherewith to associate the new information. 

After becoming convinced by my own experiments 
that supernormally-acquired knowledge really was 
sometimes displayed by mediums, but without having 
had experience of any kind of psychical phenomena 
other than ordinary trance speech, I happened to read 
Sir William Crookes's "Researches in the Phenomena 
of Spiritualism" and his account of sittings with D. D. 
Home in the "Proceedings" of the S.P.R. I had by 
this time developed great interest in the subject; I was 
no longer indifferent; my psychological attitude was 
changed. Belief was not much enlarged, for my new 
belief-acquisition was limited to the one fact of super- 
normal acquisition of knowledge somehow, and I had 
no opinion as to whether the spiritualistic claim was 
true or not. 

Now, what was the result of reading Crookes? I 
confess that at the time it was almost nil. And this 



174 SPIRITUALISM 

in spite of the fact that I regarded Sir William Crookes 
as a sort of Pope in scientific matters — Pope by merit 
instead of by election — in consequence of my study of 
chemistry and my admiration for his research work 
in that department. If I could have believed the nar- 
ratives on any man's word it would have been on the 
word of Sir William Crookes. Feeling that belief was 
not produced by his guarantee, I was sure that I should 
never attain it on the word of any other writer. I 
was chiefly conscious of a feeling of surprise and stag- 
geredness. I felt bound to admit that the phenomena 
could not now be left out of court or treated as a priori 
unreal. If Sir William Crookes said that such things 
were true, surely there must be something in it. Yet 
the alleged physical phenomena were so utterly out 
of touch with my other ideas, so incapable of being 
fitted into any place in my mental fabric, that I was 
not able to believe, though far from saying that I 
disbelieved. The content of my belief was not en- 
larged; my attitude — already respectful and attentive 
— was not much changed; the net result was a weak- 
ening of the negative presumptions which gradually 
arise from our experience of nature in its normal mani- 
festations, and a bringing of the mind nearer to that 
ideally judicial state in which evidence is weighed 
absolutely without prejudice. I need not trace out 
the further steps — by experience and reading — of my 
"agnostic's progress" towards belief; for present pur- 
poses these illustrations suffice. 

So, we must not expect to be believed, when we tell 
a story of supernormal happenings, unless we know 
that our hearer's mind has already reached a certain 



ON EVIDENCE 175 

stage. If he is new to the subject, or has not yet 
got his negative presumptions sufficiently weakened by 
the bombardment of evidence from various sides, he 
simply cannot believe us. With the best will in the 
world he cannot accept our story. He may be an 
,old and dear friend; may be as sure of our veracity 
as of his own ; may have absolute trust in our acumen ; 
yet he cannot believe. The mind in which these new 
thoughts are to be planted is occupied by enemy forces 
which repulse the attempted entry. There is a story 
of a judge, in a medium-prosecution, who said that 
the evidence for the genuineness of the phenomena was 
overwhelming, but that they were impossible, and he 
must therefore decide against the evidence. The story 
probably is not true of any judge, but it is something 
like what many good people do. Our mental fabric 
has grown into a coherent and symmetrical whole, 
and we can accept only such new facts as will attach 
themselves to related facts already in our minds — such 
new facts as find their affinities already existent in us, 
and ready to amalgamate with new truth, as an un- 
saturated solution dissolves more salt, or as an un- 
satiated carbon atom links itself with other atoms to 
force a more complex molecule. A mind which does 
not possess these affinities or link- facts will not be able 
to believe narratives of supernormal occurrences, how- 
ever well supported by evidence they may be; and we 
must not blame it for its inability. Our part is to 
prepare it for the reception of new truth, by gently 
breaking down its negative presumptions; by point- 
ing out that with all our boasted advance of knowl- 
edge the sum-total of the Possible is infinitely greater 



176 SPIRITUALISM 

than the small specimens of the Actual which orthodox 
science has thus far succeeded in pigeon-holing and 
labelling; and by presenting the sort of psychical facts 
that are most easily linked up with the fact-furniture 
already possessed. 



PART II 



CHAPTER I 

SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 

ALL sects are a reproach to the parent body, from 
which they have broken away because it failed to 
meet some one or other of the needs of its members. 
The parent body resents the secession and is naturally 
hostile. But the secession is usually a mark of greater 
life, and the sect flourishes if it does not go to ex- 
tremes and if it really does provide for anything like 
a so-to-speak fundamental want. Spiritualism arose 
as a sect because the existing religious institutions did 
not sufficiently emphasise the fact of human survival, 
and did not regard favourably the phenomena which 
attested it in modern times. We need not blame these 
institutions overmuch. They were busy with their own 
affairs, and no doubt they did what their leaders 
thought right. And there was so much f addism and gen- 
eral chaos in New England religious and social life of 
the eighteen-forties and eighteen-fifties that a certain 
conservatism was not only excusable but even desirable. 
Spiritualism as a system of belief is not hostile to 
any except very narrow forms of Christianity. Some 
critics have denied its right even to the title of religion : 
but this is a mistake. It is a religion to those who sin- 
cerely say it is, and these are many. Moreover, if 
Myers's pithy remark is true, that "the two elements 

179 



180 SPIRITUALISM 

mojt necessary for a widely-received religion are a 
lofty moral code and the attestation of some actual 
intercourse between the visible and the invisible 
worlds," * Spiritualism is quite specially equipped, for 
it has the second qualification in a degree unique among 
the churches. 

But it has other things also. It is not only a religion ; 
it is a form of Christianity; though some of its adher- 
ents prefer not to say this, because by "Christianity" 
they mean an ecclesiastical and creedal system which, 
not without reason, they regard as not necessarily good 
or representative of the mind of Christ. In a pamphlet 
entitled The Seven Principles of Spiritualism, by the 
Secretary of the Spiritualists' National Union (Mr. 
Hanson G. Hey) their position is described as follows: 

Spiritualism teaches us that we are spirits now, as much as 
ever we shall be, though temporarily inhabiting these tene- 
ments of clay, for purposes of experience, (p. 3.) 

We have no creed, no dogmas, but we have a set of princi- 
ples. . . . They are seven in number, and we assert that who- 
ever embraces these principles, assimilates them, and expresses 
them in his life, needs no other compass to steer his bark o'er 
the troubled waters of religious, political, social, or industrial 
life. 

They are as follows: 

1. The fatherhood of God. 

2. The brotherhood of man. 

3. Continuous existence. 

4. Communion of spirits and ministry of angels. 

5. Personal responsibility. 

6. Compensation and retribution hereafter for good or 

ill done on earth. 

7. A path of endless progression, (p. 19.) . . . 

1 "Classical Essays," p. 209. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 181 

We assert that no man, however good, deserves absolute 
bliss for the good he can do in the short space of this earthly 
career; and no man, however bad, deserves the other extreme. 
For, after all, man is but finite ; therefore, anything he may do 
here, is finite, be it good or ill. . . . 

Spiritualism teaches that we enter the next world precisely 
as we leave this, and begin the round of development where 
we left off here. In the higher state of being which we enter 
at the dissolution of the physical frame, we shall retain, to a 
great extent, recollections of our past life, and shall find that 
there is an intimate relation between the past, the present, and 
the future, (p. 33.) 

As stated in this pamphlet, Spiritualists have no de- 
fined and binding creed, but no doubt something like 
the above formulation is their generally accepted belief. 
It will be seen that there is nothing heretical about it. 
Indeed, it is more Christian than many forms of mod- 
ern Christianity, for it brings back into prominence 
those important facts, survival and intercommunion, 
which were taught by Christ but which, as we have 
already noted (pp. 27, 28), have in these latter days 
increasingly lapsed into a dim region of uncertainty if 
not of actual disbelief. 

But though there is no creed-shibboleth, and though 
each Spiritualist society or church is independent as in 
the Congregational body of Dissenters, there is, never- 
theless, considerable organisation of these units. The 
Spiritualists' National Union is a powerful body, with 
a weekly newspaper called The Two Worlds, published 
at 18, Corporation Street, Manchester, and edited by 
the veteran Mr. J. J. Morse, who has an honourable 
record of over fifty years' work as Spiritualist lecturer 



182 SPIRITUALISM 

and trance medium. 1 To the S.N.U. belong 180 soci- 
eties throughout the United Kingdom, and The Two 
Worlds gives regular news of the doings of the most im- 
portant of them. During 1915-17 the S.N.U. doubled 
its membership. 

The London Spiritualist Alliance is another impor- 
tant body. Formed in 1884 and registered in 1896, it 
had among its original subscribers to the memorandum 
and articles of Association the Earl of Radnor, the 
Hon. Percy Scawen Wyndham, Dr. Alfred Russel Wal- 
lace, and many other well-known men; and — lest it 
should be thought that science and aristocracy are rep- 
resented while business acuteness is not — we may men- 
tion that the Council includes the editor of one of the 
leading English financial daily papers, while the Navy 
was represented by the late Admiral W. Usborne Moore 
until his death a few months ago. The membership 
of the L.S.A. forms "a kind of middle class between the 
almost purely academic activities of the Society for 
Psychical Research and the propagandist energies of 
the numerous Spiritualistic societies." 2 It is a useful 
centre for the Metropolitan area, arranging lectures 
(some of which have been given by distinguished men 
like Sir William Barrett and Sir A. Conan Doyle) and 
regular semi-private meetings at its rooms, 6, Queen 
Square, Bloomsbury, London, W.C., or elsewhere. Its 
Press organ is the excellent weekly, Light, price 2d. 

There is also the International Psychic Gazette (yd. 
monthly), 24A Regent Street, London, S.W.i, where 
also regular lectures are given. 

1 "Leaves From My Life," by J. J. Morse, gives an interesting 
account of the inception of his mediumship. 

2 Light, February 6, 1918. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 183 

Other smaller organisations exist, more or less close- 
ly in touch with one or other of the above-mentioned. 
Altogether there are at least 350 societies holding reg- 
ular Sunday services in Great Britain. About forty of 
these own their places of worship, as a result of much 
work and self-sacrifice, for the movement, particularly 
in the north (where the S.N.U. is strongest), is essen- 
tially a democratic one. 

It is noteworthy that Spiritualists, like members of 
other sects, have done good work during the world war, 
for in addition to local and individual help they raised 
a fund of about £1,000 for the sending out of a Motor 
Ambulance. 

At these places of worship it is usual to have a 
speaker, often "inspirational" or entranced, and a clair- 
voyant who describes spirit forms which are present. 
Sometimes the two functions are combined in the same 
person, as in the case to be quoted. These speakers and 
clairvoyants vary greatly in both normal and psychic 
ability, and some of them are about as interesting as 
the average local preacher at the Wesleyan Chapel of 
a very small village. Congregations vary accordingly. 
There was a full house on the occasion now to be re- 
ported, Mr. Tyrrell being a first magnitude star among 
North of England clairvoyants. His only equal is Mr. 
A. Wilkinson, concerning whose remarkable powers I 
have written at length elsewhere. 1 It must be borne 
in mind that we are not concerned with the degree of 
their education or the quality of their oratory; our 
interest is in their clairvoyance. 

1 "Psychical Investigations" (Cassell and Co., Ltd.) 



184 SPIRITUALISM 

NOTES OF SERVICE AT MILTON SPIRITUALIST CHURCH, 

IVY ROOMS, MANNINGHAM, BRADFORD, SUNDAY 

EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30TH, I9I7 

Speaker: Mr, Tom Tyrrell 

The room was crowded, perhaps 250 present. Not 
many men. There had evidently been good results at 
the afternoon service, and the people seemed expectant. 

The Evening Service was begun by singing the fol- 
lowing hymn: 

The world hath felt a quick'ning breath 

From heaven's eternal shore, 
And souls triumphant over death 

Return to earth once more. 
For this we hold our jubilee, 

For this with joy we sing — 
"O Grave, where is thy victory? 

O Death, where is thy sting?" 

Our cypress wreaths are laid aside 

For amaranthine flowers, 
For death's cold wave does not divide 

The souls we love from ours. 
From pain and death and sorrow free, 

They join with us and sing — 
"O Grave, where is thy victory? 

O Death, where is thy sting?" 

Immortal eyes look from above 

Upon our joys to-night, 
And souls immortal in their love, 

In our glad songs unite. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 185 

Across the waveless crystal sea 

The notes triumphant ring — 
"O Grave, where is thy victory? 

O Death, where is thy sting?" 

"Sweet spirits, welcome yet again!" 

With loving hearts we cry: 
And "Peace on earth, good will to men," 

The angel hosts reply. 
From doubt and fear, through truth made free, 

With faith triumphant sing — 
"O Grave, where is thy victory? 

O Death, where is thy sting?" 

Next came a prayer by a wounded soldier who as- 
sisted Mr. Tyrrell on the platform. 

"Out of the vault of matter and unripened experi- 
ence, we approach Thee, Who art the great controlling 
and dominating power in the universe. To-night we 
are desirous for one short hour of approaching and 
holding communion with those who, having passed 
through that momentary eclipse called Death, by Thy 
immutable laws are permitted to return through the 
minds of mediums and manifest that presence to us. 
We thank you that in your providential capacity you 
have so permitted us this privilege, but we are glad 
that this may be something more than the monopoly 
of a few — that this can become the common experi- 
ence of each one of us. We thank you, dear Spirit 
Friends, for continually coming to aid and abet us. 
We ask you further to extend that love to us to-night, 
that we may impart that glorious knowledge which it 
has been our comfort to receive. We are desirous of 
impressing upon the minds of all the knowledge that 



186 SPIRITUALISM 

life after death is a certainty. We do this as a means 
to an end that they will, as a result of that experience, 
recognise that the phenomena are the finger-post and 
indication to a higher state of being. We desire, then, 
individually and co-operatively to endeavour to mate- 
rialise these ideals which are associated with their lives 
into this very real world that we live in to-day. We 
are desirous of doing so much, yet circumstances permit 
so little. We are desirous of removing poverty, super- 
stition, war, vice and crime, and all those things which 
menace humanity in their path towards progress. 

"That is why Spirits come to us. That is their high- 
est desire and ideal — when, freed from the bondage of 
time and sense, freed from the struggle for bread and 
butter and economic circumstances, they seek to come 
back and co-operate with us to make this world we 
live in a much better one. 

"We also ask you to go amongst those who are in 
any way in trouble. 

"May you all, I implore you, extend that sympathy, 
that passivity, towards our brother, that you will afford 
those conditions that will demand the best from him, 
that by his results we shall have the highest form of 
manifestation known." 

Then followed another hymn: 

Holy ministers of light! 
Hidden from our mortal sight, 
But whose presence can impart 
Peace and comfort to the heart, 
When we weep or when we pray, 
When we falter on the way, 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 187 

Or our hearts grow faint with fear 
Let us feel your presence near. 

Wandering over ways untrod, 
Doubting self and doubting God, 
Oft we miss the shining mark, 
Oft we stumble in the dark. 
When the cross is hard to bear, 
When we fail to do and dare, 
Make our wounded spirits feel 
All your power to bless and heal. 

Holy Spirit! quickening all, 
On Thy boundless love we call; 
Send Thy messengers of light 
To unseal our inward sight; 
Lift us from our low estate, 
Make us truly wise and great, 
That our lives, through love, may be 
Full of peace and rest in Thee. 

After this hymn Mr. Tyrrell was introduced and 
asked to take charge of the service. He spoke as fol- 
lows: 

"I think that the times I have been to Bradford be- 
fore I have made a few friends, and I hope that when I 
finish to-night I shall have made all of you my friends. 

"Wherever we go we find that there is a tremendous 
inquiry going on about our phenomena. I am not gifted 
very much with language for speaking purposes. But 
what I do say as a Lancashire man I believe to be able 
to make Yorkshire people understand. Nowadays we 
read of so many attacks on our movement by men who 
have never spent five minutes investigating the matter. 
It is astonishing that they will tell men with 20 to 30 



188 SPIRITUALISM 

years' experience that they are mistaken. Many of you 
will have read Dr. Mercier's statement. It is all right 
to be gifted with flowery language and to be a scien- 
tist, but scientists sometimes run in the wrong groove, 
and I am afraid Dr. Mercier has got in the wrong 
groove. Many of you will have read Bishop" [mean- 
ing Father Bernard] "Vaughan's remark: 'There have 
been more people sent to Hell through Spiritualism 
than by all the bullets and shrapnel in this war.' There 
are two questions we might put to Bishop Vaughan, 
and they are very plain ones. The first is : 'How does 
the Bishop know that this happened — that so many 
have gone to Hell through Spiritualism? Has he been 
there to see for himself?' No, we don't think he has 
been there. Has anybody returned to tell him so? No, 
we don't think anybody has returned to tell him so. 
We don't know what you in Bradford say, but we in 

Blackburn say : 'He is telling a great big thumping ' 

Well, their words are valueless even against the poor- 
est Spiritualist who has had definite evidence from those 
passed away. 

"There has been a good deal of talk lately about get- 
ting the Witchcraft Act repealed. I do not know what 
they want it repealed for. I believe that those who 
have the gift of mediumship — whatever it may be, if 
it is genuine — have a perfect right to use that phase of 
mediumship. But it only shows to me that the Church 
is getting a little bit afraid, so they are collaring the 
mediums and calling them fortune-tellers. I do not 
stand here to bolster up any fortune-tellers, the girls 
who go to find out the colour of their young man's hair, 
or the young men who go to ask the name of the girl 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 189 

they are going to marry. I think you have all courage 
to find your own girl without troubling a medium. But 
I can give you evidences where local mediums have 
given great consolation to people who have been suf- 
fering through this dreadful war and also in many 
other matters. There are all sorts of people who go to 
mediums, Church of England, Wesley ans, Primitives. 
Why*? Simply because their parsons cannot give them 
any consolation. They could not tell me where my 
father, or grandmother was. They said: 'We hope 
they are in Heaven.' Hope is a very beautiful thing, 
but an ounce of fact is worth a good deal. So they 
come to mediums — and the police are on their track! 

"Just about twelve months before the war, on a 
Wednesday, I was in a circle at Blackburn and there 
was a stranger there, a young gentleman. A lady came 
to him and said : 'Young gentleman, you work in a hot 
place.' f No, I don't,' he answered in a snappish voice. 
She said: T see you going into a place with a lot of 
coal, into a boiler-house.' 'Well,' he said, T don't 
work in a boiler.' The woman counted out two days : 
'You will have to be very careful at work on Good 
Friday,' she said. But the young man answered: T 
wouldn't work on Good Friday for the best master in 
the world.' 

"On Easter Monday I met the same young man. 
'Oh, about last Wednesday,' he said : 'the trouble that 
that woman prophesied nearly came off. I am a mould- 
er; I work at the shop — not in a boiler. On Thursday 
the foreman came to me and said: "Jack Robinson is 
pulling feeders off the boiler on Good Friday when we 
are not working. What say you to labouring for him?" 



190 SPIRITUALISM 

Well, I thought it would be double pay, and I didn't 
like to say no or I might get the sack. So I said "All 
right," though it was the first time I had worked on 
Good Friday. I had forgotten all about the meeting 
on Wednesday and was inside the boiler holding out 
the feeder while the man was pulling out the plates. 
Suddenly I felt something above me giving way and 
yelled out to my pal : "I am coming out of this." If 
it had come down it would have cut my head off!' 

"The following is another case of a medium's warn- 
ing. She said to a gentleman: 'Next Thursday at 10 
o'clock you will have to be very careful. I can see you 
right down in a room — there is a shaft goes all along 
the wall. Near the end I see sparks flying, see the 
whole place burst into flames.' The gentleman said 
later: T was down in that room on Thursday at 10 
o'clock, but I had quite forgotten the warning until a 
man suddenly cried out : "Look over there." I looked, 
and there were sparks flying. I had to ring up right 
away and have the engine stopped. If it had not been 
taken in time the whole place would have been burnt 
down.' 

"It is these mediums who are liable to prosecution. 

"To-night I am going to try my best in my own 
humble way to prove that death does not end all. I 
have not brought these spirits with me. They have 
come with you. They may be your neighbours; they 
may be strangers; they may be your loved ones. I 
simply describe what I see and leave the rest to you. 
We are not invincible; we sometimes make mistakes, 
for we cannot always interpret things we see in your 
surroundings." 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 191 

CLAIRVOYANCE 

Medium (Mr. Tyrrell.) — With the gentleman 
right against the wall I see a gentleman pointing for 
someone across there. He would be 56 before passing 
into spirit life. A fairly well-built man. He is sur- 
rounded with sea-shells, and I should judge he would 
be passionately fond of music. Probably his whole 
time would be spent with music. He wears a dark tweed 
suit. Not passed away many years. He holds up a 
cornet and had something to do with a band. His 
name is Isaac Shepherd. I get Westneld Road, Ship- 
ley, with this gentleman. He is bringing a young sol- 
dier with him, and he wants me to tell you that this is 
Mrs. Varley's boy. He says : "Dry the tears from your 
eyes, Mother." He is glad he has done his duty. 

(Recognised.} 

With you, friend. What a beautiful girl comes 
there in your surroundings! She is in spirit robes. As 
I look at you your face is lit up with a beautiful man- 
tle. She is holding over your head such a beautiful 
basket of flowers, and across the basket these words il- 
luminated : "In affectionate memory of Martha Collins 
who passed away 9th March, 1898." 

(The person addressed did not know her, but some 
one else in the audience recognised the name.} 

With this friend here: there is a beautiful lady in 
your surroundings, about 64-5. She might be older, 
but would carry age well. I think she was a lady that 
knew about spiritualism, and she seems to me to have 
done a little magnetic healing in her time. She has 



192 SPIRITUALISM 

been passed away some time, for the earth conditions 
are falling away. Her name is Mrs. Tate. 

Answer. — I know her. 

Medium. — Did she know about spiritualism? 

Answer. — Yes. 

{Cousin of someone present, but not a former mem- 
ber of the church.) 

Medium. — With our friend here, a beautiful girl. 
I should take her to be 17 before passing. She was 
trying to show herself this afternoon, but could not. 
She is looking round for someone. Her hair flows 
down her back. She is in spirit robe, and holding up an 
anchor, and on the anchor are these words: "In affec- 
tionate remembrance of Edith (Whitehope or White- 
oak), who passed away October 1st, 1889." A long 
while back. It is her birthday to-morrow in spirit. 

Answer. — Yes. 

Medium. — She says something about letting her 
mother know. 

Answer. — I will let her mother know. The mother 
was here this afternoon. 

Medium. — There is a gentleman here, about 73-4 
years old. A well-built gentleman, somewhat red in 
complexion. I should think he would not have ailed 
much as a general rule, yet I think he would get a 
little bit feeble before passing away. He wears a kind 
of Scotch tweed suit. Full in body, with moustache 
and beard round here [pointing], and bushy eyebrows. 
He is surprised to come back here. He would have been 
surprised if asked to come to a Spiritualist Church in 
earth life. I get Thomas Rhodes, Daisy Hill Lane. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 193 

He is showing me now a steel that butchers use ; prob- 
ably a butcher in earth life. 

{Recognised as "This lady's uncle."} 

(Note, Oct. 27th, 1917. No connection with the 
church.) 

He is coming with another gentleman, a friend of 
his, whom I would take to be 63 before passing. Fairly 
well-built, very religious in earth life. I see a religious 
aura obtruding from his body, showing that in life he 
was a very religious man. He is dressed in a beautiful 
frock-coat suit, with black gloves, and tall shiny hat. 
This gentleman gives me his name as Mitchell Briggs. 
He is holding up a hymn-book with "Daisy Hill Primi- 
tives" on the back. I think this gentleman will have 
been a Rechabite, shows regalia on dress. 

{Apparently unrecognised.) 

A young soldier builds up here in your surroundings 
[pointing]. I don't like describing these soldiers. He 
looks to be 27-8, but it is hard to judge. Not passed 
away very long. He comes with another gentleman. 
His name is John Preston. He says: "I lost my life 
in the present war, and I would do it over again if I 
had the chance." 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. The Secretary of the church in- 
forms me that John Arthur Preston, aged 27, was 
killed in May, 1917, and I have verified this by refer- 
ence to newspaper notices. He was in the Life Guards. 
He was connected with the Milton Spiritualist Church, 
and was a member of its Lyceum. He had said that if 
he was killed he would come back and let them know; 
and it seems that he announced his death through a 



194 SPIRITUALISM 

private circle, saying: "I have given my life," four days 
before the news came officially.) 

[Pointing to a lady.] A lady comes here, but she 
brings a little girl with her. This lady is more anxious 
about the girl than about herself. There has been 
much trouble about the passing away of this girl. 
About two years old, and been passed away into spirit 
life a long time, judging from the aura. Her hair 
is brushed beautifully, and there is a comb pushed into 
her hair. It is Willy Smith's little girl, Violet Smith. 
I don't get where they live, but this Willy Smith, from 
what I gather, knew about spiritualism. The lady is 
telling me she has met Willy's friend, Willy Scholes 
from Bowling. He is about 33-4, a very fine young 
man. He lived at a place called Bowling. 

(J think these were recognised.) 

Medium. — A lady brings a girl to our friend here, 
a girl about 9 or 10 years old. How bright and beau- 
tiful this girl appears ! This lady is bringing her over, 
helping her forward. The child has thrown off all 
earth conditions, and comes in a spirit robe. Her hair 
is flowing down her back. It is Mrs. Neal's little girl, 
Gladys Mary. [Addresses someone in audience.] Do 
you come from Leeds'? 

Answer. — Yes. 

Medium. — I get that this girl passed away at Leeds, 
and if you will inquire at Leeds you will find out about 
the girl. Gladys Mary Neal. You have to ask Alice 
Hesp. She will tell you. 

{Apparently there were people present who came 
from heed's and who seemed to recognise the child.) 

(Oct. 27th, 1917 : they afterwards wrote to the Sec- 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 195 

retary and asked to be informed if anything further 
came.) 

There is a lady, about 27-8, comes here in your sur- 
roundings. I don't know whether she passed in weak- 
ness or not, but I get a feeling of a weakened condi- 
tion, though she has thrown it off now. Sarah Jane 
Parker, and she lived in Allerton Street, as near as I 
can catch the sound. She has been passed away per- 
haps 16 or 17 years. 

{Not recognised.) 

Ask Mrs. Peacock about this young lady, Mrs. Pea- 
cock in Upper Woodland Road. Is there a Mrs. Pea- 
cock present^ 

Answer. — No. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. Inquiries have been made, and it 
is found that a Mrs. Peacock lived in Upper Woodland 
Road until a few weeks ago. Her present address is 
not yet traced. No Sarah Jane Parker is known in Al- 
lerton Street. This street, also Upper Woodland Road, 
is half a mile or so from where the meeting was be- 
ing held.) 

Medium [pointing]. — What a comical lady comes 
there ! She is 64-5. A lady that would be a little bit 
poor in circumstances — and I think a good singer, too. 
The name I cannot quite catch, though they gave her 
a nickname and called her "Cockle Sarah." 

(General laughter, and answers of "I knew her") 

She says: "I am pleased I have met with my dear 
friend 'Salt Jim. 5 " 

I don't understand that at all. 

Answer. — That is right. 

Medium. — I give it in the rough, just as I get it, 



196 SPIRITUALISM 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. Cockle Sarah and Salt Jim were 
well-known street hawkers and singers in Bradford. 
Sarah died about 1910 and Jim about 1913. They 
were mentioned in local papers at the time of their 
death. They were friends.) 

There is a lady stands in the midst of you here 
[pointing] . A lady I would take to be 63-4. A stout- 
ish lady; been passed away a good bit, judging from 
the aura. She is dressed in black from top to toe — 
a lady that would always be fond of black, but there 
is a lot of light in her surroundings. She gives her 
name as Elizabeth Bolton, and she lived in Western 
Street. 

She says : "I am pleased I have been reunited to my 
dear son John." 

Answer. — Yes, that is right. 

Medium. — She says also: "We are pleased that we 
have met with our friend Mr. Magson." 

{General murmur of "right") 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. J am informed by the Secretary 
that John Bolton was a former secretary of the Church 
and died in 1913. His mother was also an attender. 
She has never been described from the platform before, 
but often communicates at a private circle. Mr. Mag- 
son was another stalwart of the same church.) 

Right behind there is a gentleman stands in the aisle 
looking round for someone. I would take him to be 
54-5. He is fairly well-built, and I think would be a 
very jovial sort of man in earth life. He wears a 
navy blue suit. Full in body. Wears a watch chain. 
He is a bit surprised that he can come back. Another 
gentleman is helping him along. This gentleman looks 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 197 

to me like a parson, about 67 years old — a very fine 
man. The first gentleman is Albert Sutcliffe, and the 
man who looks like a parson is Laurence Lancaster. 

Now the first man is holding up a tray with glasses 
on it, and I see around the glasses written "Unicom 
Hotel." This parson is helping him forward. He had 
been kept down on the earthly plane. He is helping 
him to rise out of his condition. He says he was pleased 
that I described his friend Orrell this afternoon. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. The "Unicorn Hotel" is a hotel 
in Ivegate, Bradford, an old part of the town. Albert 
Sutcliffe — correctly described — was a former landlord, 
well known to my informant. Parson not yet recog- 
nised. Orrell not known.) 

There is a lady brings a girl here towards you, 
Mother [pointing to a lady in audience — he addressed 
several in this way]. She does not seem to be more 
than 9 or 10. The lady seems very anxious over this 
girl, who I think passed away a good bit from here, 
but she seems as if she wanted the parents to know 
about this girl. It is Mrs. Ball's little girl, Ivy Ball. 
The lady is 63-4, and named Mrs. Mitchell. She lived 
at a place called Yeadon. She has brought the little 
girl for Mrs. Ball to know about it. 

Answer. — I know about it. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. Yeadon is a few miles away. The 
people are not connected with the church, but some 
one happened to be present who knew them.) 

Medium. — A boy comes here, about 17 years old, 
and I think he has been passed away a long while, be- 
cause he comes very bright and very beautiful. He 
has thrown off all earth conditions, and comes in spirit 



198 SPIRITUALISM 

robes. He is Laurence Marshall. Had he something 
to do with lightning"? 

Answer. — His father was killed by lightning. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. L. M. was one of the church 
workers.) 

Medium. — He says he is glad he has met with Frank 
Hodson. Perhaps you understand that better than I 
do. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. Uncertain; would fit if it were 
Hob son or Hodgson.) 

With you here, Mother. A young man here looking 
round for someone. He might be 24, or older than 
that. A very fine, intellectual young man, and one who 
was very highly spiritualised in earth life. Not passed 
away a great length of time. He wears a kind of dark 
tweed suit, but it is falling away and giving place to 
spirit robes. He is throwing a mantle over you, and 
your face is lit up. Will you ask Mrs. Duxbury, who 
lives in Westcliffe Road, if she knows this young gen- 
tleman"? His name is John Edward Holt. [Addresses 
someone in audience.] Do you know this young man? 

Answer. — I knew one that went to America, but I 
don't know whether he has passed on. 

Medium. — He has brought another boy with him, 
quite a young man, about 22. A young man, and he 
looks as if he had passed away abroad by his skin and 
his dress. He wears a white dress, as if he had to be in 
a warmish country. He has a cricket ball in his hands. 
Very fond of cricket. This friend is Harry Fox. Lived 
in Bowling Lane, passed away in China. The other 
boy passed away here. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. These names are correct, but not 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 199 

much can be ascertained. Harry Fox was a cricket 
player* and lived in the Bowling district of Bradford, 
some two or three miles from the meeting-place. He 
went abroad somewhere.) 

There is a gentleman right at the back, about 72 be- 
fore passing into spirit life. Well built, and a gentle- 
man who would have had a good deal of physical exer- 
cise when in earth life. Not been passed away so 
very long. Gives me rather a funny name. He is 
showing me a sporting paper, and on it a picture of this 
gentleman in cricket flannels, taken when he was very 
much younger. The name on the picture is Andrew 
Thackray. This gentleman, when younger, would have 
been very fond of cricket, and probably played in this 
town of yours a good many years ago. 

It seems that he has been helping this Harry Fox 
to come forward. 

With this lady here. A gentleman seems to be com- 
ing towards you. I would take him to be 63-4, but he 
might be older. Fairly well-built gentleman, one who 
would have been very active when in earth life. Wears 
a dark tweed suit, a regalia on it, a Rechabite's ragalia, 
so he was a gentleman connected with the Rechabites' 
movement. He gives me the name of Charles Benn of 
Eastbrook Lane. He had something to do with the 
Corporation. He is showing me a photograph, on which 
is written "Corporation Health Department." He was 
a very religiously disposed man, too. 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. Not recognised. But there is a 
Corporation sub-office in Eastbrook Lane.) 

There is a young man here, about 34-5. Been passed 
away about five years. He is looking round for some- 



200 SPIRITUALISM 

one up here on the platform [the room was crowded 
and seats had been placed on the platform]. He 
passed away very suddenly. He is anxious for those 
he has left behind. He gives the name of Harry Smith. 
Somebody belonging to him lived in Wellington Street, 
No. 13. I am rather surprised that some of the Spirit- 
ualists should not know him. He wants his wife to 
know. 

Answer. — Our late President was Harry Smith. 

Medium. — There is a Mr. Armitage with him. 

(Mr. Armitage and Wellington Street evidently not 
known.) 

(Oct. 27th, 1917. A curious incident. The names 
of presidents of Spiritualist societies may be assumed 
to be known to mediums, but the "Wellington Street 
No. 13" seems possibly evidential. It will be noted 
that he was stated to be looking round for someone on 
the platform. I am to-day informed by the Secretary, 
Mr. Holden, who was not at the meeting, being un- 
avoidably out of town, that he once had great difficulty 
in collecting a debt at 13 Wellington Street, for coal, 
on behalf of Mr. Smith. This was a matter not likely 
to be known to the medium or indeed to anyone pres- 
ent, and it seems probable that Mr. Smith was looking 
round for Mr. Holden in order to give him test evi- 
dence of his identity. The medium, being given an 
address, naturally thought that Mr. Smith or someone 
belonging to him lived there, which is not so. 

The Mr. Armitage is unrecognised.) 

A lady comes here in your surroundings [pointing] 
about 63-4. Been passed into spirit life a good number 
of years. Fairly well built. A jovial sort, and one that 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 201 

would have been a very good judge of character. She 
places her hands on your shoulders. She comes very 
close in your life. Name — Amelia Murgatroyd. She 
has met her friend, Elizabeth Hale, who would live 
at No. 80, Cartwright Terrace. 

(The person addressed did not recognise the people, 
but some one else said: "I know them, they were 
friends.") 

Medium. — They want to be remembered to Mr. and 
Mrs. C. 

Answer. — Yes, that is all right. 

Medium. — They don't forget, they don't forget. 

See, a boy comes in your surroundings. He looks to 
me to be about 17 or 18, and I think there will have 
been a good deal of sorrow over the passing away of 
this boy. A lady brings this boy, and she wants the 
parents to know about him. Whether he passed away 
in weakness or not, I don't know. He is a very beau- 
tiful boy; she is telling me that it is Herbert Ernest. 
There is somebody belonging to him called Seth. I 
cannot get along with it. Do you know anybody called 
Seth and Mary that had a boy called Herbert Ernest 
Hobson? 

Answer. — You are right, friend. 

Medium. — They want you to know. 

Right in the corner there [pointing] . I don't know 
what to make of this at all. It is a youth, I should 
take him to be about 18. There is a gentleman with 
this youth ; and I have a very curious feeling. I rather 
think this youth will have been killed from the shock. 
Now he comes and shows me. He is without jacket, 
and his clothes are covered with colour. He is holding 



202 SPIRITUALISM 

out his hands, and there is a reddish dye on them. He 
may have worked in a dye works. I feel I would fall 
over. He may have met with his death in a dye works. 
It is Mrs. Miller's boy, William Henry Miller; lived 
in Valley Place, and I think he would be killed in a 
dye works. Not more than four or five years ago, as 
far as I can see in the surroundings. This gentleman 
comes with him. He is Henry Mitchell, and he used 
to belong to Yeadon. He is helping the boy forward. 
(All correct, except that Henry Mitchell is unrecog- 
nised. Mr. Holden, my informant, knew William 
Henry Miller. Leg hurt at dye works, blood poison- 
ing, died about 1911. Valley Dye Works.) 

Answer. — I know this man. 

Medium. — He is glad he has met with his old friend, 
Mary Leach. 

Perhaps now you will sing a verse. It is getting very 
hot. 

(The following hymn was sung) : 

How pure in heart and sound in head, 
With what divine affections bold, 
Should be the man whose thought would hold 

An hour's communion with the dead. 

In vain shalt thou, or any, call 

The spirits from their golden day, 
Except, like them, thou too canst say, 

My spirit is at peace with all. 

They haunt the silence of the breast, 

Imagination calm and fair, 

The memory like a cloudless air, 
The conscience as a sea at rest. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 203 

But when the heart is full of din, 
And doubt beside the portal waits, 
They can but listen at the gates, 

And hear the household jar within. 

— Tennyson. 

Medium. — A boy and a girl come here, boy about 
24 and girl about 16, but I think you will have to carry 
your minds back over twenty years to find these two. 
He is a very beautiful young man, seems quite girlish 
in appearance, and I think he would pass away with a 
weakness. The girl has her hair flowing down, and is 
dressed in spirit robes. She passed away with a fever. 
They give me the names of Charlie Craven and Hilda 
Smith, and they passed away at Leeds over twenty 
years ago. She is telling me that his mother was Ann 
Craven. 

{At first these were unrecognised, but afterwards 
some of the people from Leeds recollected the girl's 
mother, who lives at Blackpool, or used to.) 

They have brought another little girl with them, 
called Annie Bentley. Somebody belonging to the girl 
has had something to do with gardening. 

That is all I can get. I am afraid there will be some 
disappointment, but I have described things as best I 
can. It is not necessary to come here for evidence. 
Most of you have someone in your own home who is 
susceptible to spirit influences, and you can get better 
evidence at home. I thank you all very kindly for 
your attention. 

Another hymn followed, then the Benediction and 
dismissal. 

The evidential value of public clairvoyance incidents 



204 SPIRITUALISM 

such as those reported above, is extremely difficult to 
estimate. It would be almost nil if the medium were 
a local man, for he might possess all the knowledge 
shown, even though he might be unaware of it. The 
data might have been acquired casually and stored up 
in his subliminal, giving rise to pseudo-evidential hal- 
lucinations. But it happens that Mr. Tyrrell lives at 
Blackburn (Lancashire), and seems to have visited 
Bradford only about three or four times in his life. He 
says he is not in touch with Bradford people or affairs, 
and does not see Bradford newspapers. Moreover, he 
travels extensively, as does Mr. Wilkinson, giving clair- 
voyance in innumerable towns; and both seem to be 
pretty uniformly successful wherever they go, even 
when they pay a visit to a place they know nothing 
about. In saying this I am not relying on what they 
say; indeed, they are very modest about their own 
gifts. I am relying on information received from 
friends in various towns, who have attended the meet- 
ings. 

Jburther, my private sittings with Mr. Wilkinson 
have amply convinced me of the genuineness of those 
gifts, and with Mr. Tyrrell also I have had fairly good 
evidence, particularly at a second sitting, the report of 
which has not been published. Consequently, I find it 
easy to accept, provisionally, a supernormal and even a 
face-value interpretation of this public clairvoyance; 
while agreeing that it would not be in itself sufficient 
to produce conviction, except, perhaps, to some of those 
present who can feel reasonably sure as to the extent of 
the medium's knowledge of their affairs. 

In addition to these Sunday evening meetings there 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 205 

is usually a Sunday afternoon meeting of similar char- 
acter, and about 300 societies have a Sunday-school 
( "Lyceum" ) for the children, conducted on sensible 
and interesting lines. There are drills and marches and 
calisthenics, with hymn-singing, recitation, reading of 
good science primers, and much judicious inculcation of 
high moral and spiritual teaching. The aim throughout 
is to draw out and develop the pupil, encouraging 
healthy mental growth in many directions. To one 
reader at least, the "Lyceum Manual" came as a pleas- 
ant surprise. Other sects might learn much from it. 

For example, there is the Golden Chain series of reci- 
tations. These are a set of sentences on Brotherhood, 
the Beatitudes, the Nature of Man, Wisdom, the Word 
of God, the Religion of Health, the Teachings of Spirit- 
ualism, and so forth. They are arranged in short sen- 
tences to be read alternately by the Conductor and the 
whole Lyceum. A few are given below as illustration : 

Conductor. — What is the commandment of Broth- 
erhood ? 

Lyceum. — Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
self. 

Conductor. — What is the law of Angels? 

Lyceum. — All men are my brothers; all women are 
my sisters ; all children are my children. 

Conductor. — What does love require? 

Lyceum. — Instruction for the ignorant, sympathy 
for the fallen, rest for the weary, kindness to the un- 
thankful, succour to the distressed, forgiveness to the 
erring. 

Conductor. — Ever hold in remembrance this talis- 



206 SPIRITUALISM 

manic sentence, making it a part of your being: "My 
country is the universe; my home is the world; my re- 
ligion to do good ; my heaven wherever a human heart 
beats in sympathy with mine." {Thomas Paine.) 

Conductor. — What is the first lesson in fraternal 
love? 

Lyceum. — Faith in our fellow-beings; faith that 
there is in every human soul a desire to be good. 

Conductor. — What does this faith teach us? 

Lyceum. — Charity, which covereth a multitude of 
sins; that sins follow from weakness and imperfection, 
and we pity where we cannot blame. 

Conductor. — What is the earthly body? 

Lyceum. — It is a moving, living house, the earthly 
temple of the spirit, which dwells in it for a time on 
earth to learn the lessons of this life. 

Conductor. — What becomes of the spirit after 
death? 

Lyceum. — If good, it lives in the bright Spirit 
World, in which it has a beautiful and lovely home. 
If bad, it has to dwell in spiritual darkness until it is 
purified of its sins. 

Conductor. — Do our spirit brothers, sisters, moth- 
ers, fathers, and friends ever return to our homes? 

Lyceum. — Yes, they come to watch over those they 
love, and guard them from evil and danger, and guide 
them through life. 

Conductor. — What is the spirit? 

Lyceum. — A self-conscious being in human form, 
manifesting affection and intelligence. 

Conductor. — What is its destiny? 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 207 

Lyceum. — Everlasting life and everlasting ascension 
through endless realms of thought and action. 

Conductor. — Manifest Temperance in all things. 

Lyceum. — Whether physical, mental, moral, affec- 
tional, or religious. 

Conductor. — Give Justice to all creatures that be. 

Lyceum. — Justice being the exercise of precisely the 
same rules of life, conduct, thought, or speech that we 
would desire to receive from others. 

Conductor. — Show Gentleness in speech and act. 

Lyceum.— Never heedlessly wounding the feelings 
of others by harsh words or deeds ; never hurting or de- 
stroying aught that breathes, save for the purpose of 
sustenance or self-defence. 

Conductor. — Speak Truth in every word or thought 
spoken or acted. 

Lyceum.— But reserve harsh or unpleasant truths 
where they would needlessly wound the feelings of 
others. 

Conductor. — Exercise Charity in thought, striving 
to excuse the failings of others. 

Lyceum. — Yes, and charity in speech, veiling the 
failings of others; charity in deeds, wherever, when- 
ever, and to whomsoever the opportunity offers. 

Conductor. — In Almsgiving be generous. 

Lyceum. — Visiting the sick and comforting the af- 
flicted in every shape that our means admit of, and the 
necessities of our fellow-creatures demand. 

Conductor. — Exhibit Self-sacrifice at all times. 

Lyceum. — Wherever the interests of others are to 
be benefited by our endurance. 

Conductor. — How is it [Spiritualism] a religion? 



208 SPIRITUALISM 

Lyceum. — Because it gives us a juster conception 
of the Creator and His works, prompts us to act up 
to our highest sense of duty, and stimulates spiritual 
growth and purity of life, thus preparing us for the 
immortality which it proves. 

Conductor. — What is the spiritual body? 

Lyceum. — The Spiritual body is an organised form, 
evolved by and out of the physical body, having corre- 
sponding organs and development, and resembles the 
physical body. 

Conductor. — Can you tell anything further of the 
spiritual body? 

Lyceum.— It outlives the change called death, and 
becomes the external body of the spirit. 

Conductor. — What is the innermost spirit? 

Lyceum. — The intelligent, ethereal, and immortal 
part of man, the life itself, a spark from the Divine. 1 



la 



The Lyceum Officers' Manual." 



CHAPTER II 

spiritualism as a religion {Continued) 

APPARENTLY spiritualist societies suffer from 
one disorder which is prevalent among the Non- 
conformist sects — that of too-frequent splits and the 
founding of small competitive societies. A spiritualist 
writer, Mr. J. Rutherford, said in The Two Worlds of 
October 12 th, 1917: 

A very large number of Spiritualistic Societies are formed 
after the amoeba plan. This is particularly the case on Tyne- 
side. In South Shields, for instance, there are five Societies, 
and, curious to relate, two are next door to each other. . . . 
The development of little hole-and-corner meetings arises, in 
most cases, in this way: A Society is established, and with, 
say, an able President, does some useful work. Ultimately, 
however, an individual, well weighted with vanity and little 
wisdom, aspires to the office of President. A clique is gathered 
round him, and unless the clique obtain their object, a "di- 
vision" is the result. 

There is a good deal of human nature, evidently, 
with its inevitable party politics, in spiritualists as in 
other folk. And this human or secular element is rather 
strongly present in the atmosphere of their meetings. 
The good people are friendly and chatty, but a moder- 
ately orthodox stranger would probably feel that the 
devotional element is rather small. The proceedings 

209 



210 SPIRITUALISM 

are interesting — except when a speaker is long-winded 
and platitudinous — and everyone is affable; but there 
is a lack of dignity and reverence. This, however, may 
be the fault of the stranger, who has been brought up 
on vaulted roofs and surpliced choirs and "storied win- 
dows richly dight." An average Congregationalist will 
perhaps not feel this secuk rity to a painful extent, and 
a village Wesleyan may not feel it at all. And any- 
how it is perhaps better than the other extreme, which 
often becomes mere dead ceremonialism. 

At spiritualist meetings a trance control or inspira- 
tional speaker will sometimes hold forth with surprising 
fluency at incredible length — the Secretary of the Spirit- 
ualists' National Union once backed the late W. J. 
Colville to talk "till this time next week, without inter- 
vals for meals" — yet with a dullness and inanity that 
would drive any but a very tolerant audience mad. 
Spiritualists certainly have the virtue of patience, 
though there was an article in The Two Worlds in 
1917 which indicated that at least one spiritualist was 
coming to the end of his tether, for he protested against 
the custom of having speakers of this class, urging 
that mediumship, to be useful, must be mainly evi- 
dential. 

It is probable that many "mediums" who give trance 
addresses and supposed clairvoyance at spiritualist 
meetings are people in whom there is a dissociation of 
consciousness, and that there is no external spirit-agency 
at all. The mere fact of an eloquent trance address 
proves nothing, for the same thing may be observed in 
the case of many a hypnotised subject; and even when 
"spirits" are seen, named, and described, we cannot be 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 211 

sure that there is anything supernormal about the phe- 
nomena unless there is something said which the me- 
dium would never have known and which cannot rea- 
sonably be attributed to chance. In a case known to 
me, a local medium gave me (in trance), the names, 
addresses, and descriptions of several people who had 
died a year or so before, in towns not far away. All 
the information turned out correct, and I am ready to 
believe that the medium did not consciously know it. 
If he had been fraudulent he would have posted him- 
self up about my own deceased relatives, which would 
have been a very easy matter. The people he did de- 
scribe were unknown to me, and I had never even heard 
of them. Probably he had read or heard of them, and 
the trance-control (a secondary personality) reproduced 
the knowledge in spiritistic form, somewhat as we may 
dream that we are seeing and talking to some deceased 
person whom we have heard of but have not known. 

Presumably it would be a wise policy for spiritualist 
societies to get their members to prepare papers and give 
addresses with their own wits, thus educating both 
themselves and their hearers; instead of encouraging 
the flow of platitudinous or almost meaningless verbi- 
age which, whether it comes from a medium's sublim- 
inal or from a discarnate spirit, can hardly be helpful 
to anybody, and must be very bad for the minds of 
most hearers. 

Among spiritualists there is also much holding of 
private circles, with results probably both good and 
bad. Many a materialist has been convinced in this 
way, and indeed many inquirers have first begun to 
take the matter seriously because of results so obtained, 



212 SPIRITUALISM 

becoming spiritualists in consequence. Real and im- 
portant faculty may be developed by these means, and 
the procedure is at least scientific, in the sense of being 
experimental. On the other hand, these matters are 
still so little understood that we cannot say with con- 
fidence that this promiscuous sitting for development, 
of earnest but perhaps uneducated people, is without 
danger. In many persons, without question, it favours 
the oncoming of automatic phenomena — twitching of 
the muscles, leading up to automatic writing or speech, 
and sometimes trance — and we know too little about 
these dissociative changes to feel sure that they are 
always harmless. In defence it may be urged, with 
truth so far as my knowledge goes, that the dissocia- 
tions induced by spiritualistic practices come on prac- 
tically only when sought, and are therefore not com- 
parable with split-personality cases such as that of Miss 
Beauchamp (not a spiritualist) in which a useful life 
was spoilt until the multiple selves were again inte- 
grated by hypnotic suggestion. 1 But, in at least some 
cases of trance-control, there is no reason to believe the 
control to be other than a subliminal fraction of the 
automatist's mind, and unless some supernormal faculty 
is shown there is probably no benefit for anyone. 
These controls are often fluent enough, but torrents 
of words and much repetition are useless and tedious 
if the sense is shallow. Even Mr. J. J. Morse refers 
humorously to a certain "medium" who "lectured for 

1 "The Dissociation of a Personality," by Dr. Morton Prince. See 
also the Doris Fischer case in recent volumes of "Proceedings" of the 
American Society for Psychical Research. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 213 

some time, and culminated in a tremendous outburst of 
either noise or eloquence." * 

And as to private dark sittings for physical phe- 
nomena, somewhat the same is to be said. We know 
little of the psychological conditions set up by long 
sitting in the dark. If physical phenomena are tried 
for at all, it is desirable to have some light, as with 
Dr. Crawford's Belfast circle; and, even then, there 
seems no particular point in physical phenomena alone, 
except as providing a problem for the physicist and 
psychical researcher. A table or other object may 
move in some inexplicable way, but that is no proof of 
"spirits"; the energy is supplied from physical matter 
— mainly the medium's and sitters' bodies, apparently 
— and it is only through evidential messages conveyed 
by the phenomena that spirit-agency can reasonably be 
inferred. Without such messages, a physical-phenom- 
ena sitting may be only a demonstration of the action 
of a new physical force, and the performance is usually 
exhausting for the medium. So, on the whole, it would 
seem that private circles, except when held for investi- 
gation and by qualified persons, are doubtfully good, 
though the present writer cheerfully admits that his 
knowledge is insufficient to justify any dogmatism in 
the matter. And he also admits that his own best ex- 
periences in physical phenomena have been with a 
private sensitive (not a spiritualist and not in the dark) 
and it seems probable that psychic faculty is com- 
moner than is supposed. 

These remarks and criticisms are made in a friendly 
spirit. There may be much crudity and credulity 

1 "Leaves From My Life," p. 9. 



214 SPIRITUALISM 

among spiritualists, but they have the root of the mat- 
ter. They have found the facts, have clung to them, 
have forced the learned world to attend; and we owe 
them praise and respect. And crudity and credulity 
that we find are excusable. Let those — as Myers says 
— who mock at the weaknesses of Spiritualism "ask 
themselves to what extent either orthodox religion or 
official science has been at pains to guard the popular 
mind against losing balance upon contact with new 
facts, profoundly but obscurely significant. Have the 
people's religious instructors trained them to investi- 
gate for themselves? Have their scientific instructors 
condescended to investigate for them?" * The fact 
is that for the most part both religious and scientific 
instructors, in the early spiritualistic days particularly, 
failed to do anything but ignorantly condemn. They 
have sinned and done wickedly therein; and it ill be- 
comes any of us who are open to that condemnation to 
cast sneers at the spiritualists who have found truth 
which we failed to recognise. We may legitimately 
criticise, after due study, but the thing calls for serious- 
ness, not offhand dismissal. 

A movement begun as Spiritualism began, among 
earnest but untutored folk, must take some time to pre- 
sent itself respectably to our sophisticated eyes. It be- 
gins with no advantages of Gothic cathedrals or state- 
ly liturgy or venerated tradition. Its truth is indeed 
an old truth, but the emphasis of it is new. So with 
Christianity itself. The Early Christians were mostly 
of the people, and were despised; but their inner force 
began a new era and lifted man a step nearer the divine. 

1 "Human Personality," vol. ii., pp. 304-5. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 215 

The Nonconformists, after the Restoration, worshipped 
in barns at midnight or in the small hours of the morn- 
ing, with the dragoons ever on their trail. Their faith 
was real enough — as is evidenced by the sufferings they 
endured — in spite of unimpressive surroundings. Re- 
ligion is never dignified in externals at the start — it is 
always born in a "stable" or other lowly place, there 
being no room for it in the busy, successful, conserva- 
tive "inn" of the world, — but it has its own dignity 
of sincerity and earnestness. To many, Spiritualism is 
a real religion; not the mere fact of belief in survival 
and communication, but the whole body of belief, which 
is perhaps nearer to that of the Early Christians than 
is the Christianity of some of the orthodox churches. 
It is not a worship of spirits, any more than Wesleyan- 
ism is a worship of John Wesley. Neither is it merely 
communication with spirits. As already stated, its first 
principle is the fatherhood of God, and this is a re- 
ligious principle. We must not make the mistake of 
regarding the feature which differentiates it from other 
sects as its only feature. Whether spiritualism will 
gather external dignity and freeze into a respectable 
orthodoxy or whether it will leaven and merge from 
existing forms, producing a better form than either, 
remains for the future to show — and, in any case, will 
rest with its adherents. 

Writing in England and wishing to keep to the main 
line of development — for it is in England that the sub- 
ject has received most attention from qualified investi- 
gators since 1870 or so — I have made no attempt to 
describe the state of spiritualistic affairs in other coun- 
tries. To deal with modern American spiritualism 



216 SPIRITUALISM 

alone another volume and a more competent writer 
would be required. The regrettable thing in connexion 
with it seems to be that, though there is an American 
Society for Psychical Research (New York) with the 
able secretaryship of Dr. J. H. Hyslop, formerly pro- 
fessor of Logic and Ethics at Columbia University, the 
subject as a whole has been exploited so much by ad- 
vertising fortune-tellers — mostly, no doubt, mere char- 
latans and money -grabbers — that educated people have 
held aloof. 1 The Progressive Thinker of Chicago is 
the chief U.S.A. spiritualistic paper. In France there 
are a few spiritualistic journals and much private psy- 
chical activity, but no strong organisation. (The books 
of Allan Kardec are the main authorities, and spiritism 
is reincarnationist.) The same holds true of Italy, 
where attention has been mainly given to physical phe- 
nomena in consequence of the mediumship of the Nea- 
politan Eusapia Palladino. In Germany Spiritualism 
has not flourished, occultism and Theosophy — under 
Dr. Rudolf Steiner's leadership — having been appar- 
ently more to the Teutonic taste. In Spain and the 
South American republics there is a great deal of private 
Spiritualism, but little organisation, and the same ap- 
plied to Russia before the War. In Melbourne, Aus- 
tralia, there is a good Spiritualist paper — The Har- 
binger of Light — and a fair amount of interest. 

In New Zealand Spiritualism was forging ahead be- 
fore the War, with many societies holding Sunday 
services all over the Dominion, and a paper called The 

1 Mr. J. J. Morse found a surprising and repellent amount of adver- 
tising by "mediums and others who were not." "Leaves From My 
Life," p. 34. 



SPIRITUALISM AS A RELIGION 217 

Message of Life. Latterly there has been a police cam- 
paign against mediums, some of whom have been fined 
and even imprisoned. 1 It may be that they deserved it 
— if of the ordinary fortune-telling kind who are, of 
course, not mediums — and it may be necessary to pro- 
tect credulous people from visiting them. 

But the law, both in New Zealand and nearer home, 
is in great need of amendment. It does not recognise 
the existence of psychic power, and therefore ignores 
real facts, and punishes on a basis of ignorance. The 
Spiritualists' National Union is raising a fund for agi- 
tation against the old Acts which embody this ignorant 
incredulity, and has collected about £1,000. In the 
United States there is more freedom, with results both 
good and bad. It is a difficult problem. Some classi- 
fication, and registration of tested and genuine me- 
diums, seems desirable. Sometimes the police send 
spies (paid agents) who pretend to be genuinely seek- 
ing communication with some departed friend or de- 
siring other help from the medium. In a recent case in 
America it was decided that this kind of dishonest trap- 
ping was inadmissible ; and indeed an enlightened mag- 
istrate at Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, has, I find as I 
write this, discharged a medium who was trapped in 
this way, allowing the defence that there was no proof 
of intent to deceive, the defendant being a spiritualist 
and genuinely believing in her own alleged faculty. 2 
All the same, the majority of these supposed mediums 
are probably self-deceived, or may trade on a slender 
basis of occasional clairvoyant gleams; and it is not 

1 Two Worlds, March i, 1918, p. 66. 
* Yorkshire Observer, March 12, 19 18. 



218 SPIRITUALISM 

desirable that the general public should resort to them 
promiscuously. Some of them, for instance, predict 
the death of the sitter within a given time — this oc- 
curred in my case once — and to some people this is 
disturbing and might even tend to its own fulfilment. 
However, this sort of prediction is probably excep- 
tional ; given only by a foolish woman here and there. 
During the War many inquiries have no doubt been 
about missing men, and most of the mediums probably 
tend to the hopeful side and may consequently give 
some comfort in specially trying circumstances. Most 
sitters go in the hope of getting into communication 
with sons or husbands killed, and many succeed and de- 
rive great help and comfort; but genuine and strong 
mediumship of this kind is available to the public only 
in London, and is rare even there. The good mediums 
elsewhere in the country confine themselves to religious 
and semi-religious work in their own sect, giving ad- 
dresses and clairvoyance at the societies' places of wor- 
ship, mostly on a peripatetic system. 



CHAPTER III 

MATERIALISTIC AND OTHER OBJECTIONS 

GREAT BRITAIN is a free country, so far as opin- 
ion is concerned, and people may think what 
they like. Accordingly, many people think that Spirit- 
ualism is all fraud or hallucination. No harm is done 
so long as they confine themselves to thinking, but 
unfortunately these good folk are usually far from 
silent. In fact they talk and write more than they 
think. Least of all do they investigate. Their nega- 
tions are a priori. They know, without experiment, 
what can and what cannot happen. The scholastics 
said there were no spots in the sun, because the sun was 
a perfect orb and could have no spots. They would 
not look through Galileo's telescope. And the plane- 
tary orbits must be circular, because circles were digni- 
fied and perfect things. These scholastics first decided 
what they thought ought to be, then said it was so. 
Similarly with the materialistic or negatively-dogmatic 
anti-spiritualists — for a few of them are not exactly 
materialists. The truth is that it is precisely the things 
which, according to accepted theories, ought not to 
happen, that we should be on the look-out for, as Sir 
John Herschel has said. They are valuable clues to 
new discoveries. But there are still many who have 

219 



220 SPIRITUALISM 

not reached that point of wisdom, even among the 
philosophers. 

Said Professor Miinsterberg, not long ago, of trance- 
mediumship: "The facts as they are claimed do not 
exist, and never will exist, and no debate makes the 
situation better." * Says Mr. Frederic Harrison : "To 
talk to us of mind, feeling, and will continuing their 
functions in the absence of physical organs and visible 
organisms, is to use language which, to us at least, is 
pure nonsense." 2 

As to Professor Miinsterberg, the attitude exempli- 
fied is exactly that of the savage who could not be- 
lieve that water could ever become solid, as he was 
assured that it did in cold countries ; also of those who 
could not believe in Antipodes because people there 
would be head downwards and would fall off. In such 
cases, the disbelievers are merely ignorant. 

Mr. Harrison's remark is less naively absurd, though 
it seems to connote an atheism which is now not much 
held; for "mind, feeling, and will" must be attributed 
to God if there is one, and He has no "visible organ- 
ism" — unless the physical universe is supposed to be 
His body, which is a tenable theory, as we shall see 
later, but which would damage Mr. Harrison's posi- 
tion; for if the Universe has a soul, parts of it may 
have proportionate souls, which will transmigrate but 
not perish, as the matter of their bodies changes but is 
not annihilated. And the materialism which cannot 
conceive of soul except as associated with and indeed — 
as some have said — produced by a brain, is not only 



1 "Psychology and Life," p. 253. 

a "Philosophy of Common Sense," p. 217. 



MATERIALISTIC OBJECTIONS 221 

not scientific, but is bad metaphysics. As Professor 
James pointed out in his admirable Ingersoll lecture on 
Human Immortality, "function" may be of different 
kinds. The trigger of a crossbow exercises a permissive 
function, removing an obstacle to the string's motion. 
A lens or prism exercises a transmissive function, al- 
lowing light to pass through. Our brains may be 
prisms allowing the manifestation of part of our total 
consciousness, as prisms make visible only part of the 
ray. If the materialist asks how brains can be con- 
ceived as transmitting consciousness, we ask him how 
they can be conceived as producing it. Function is, 
strictly speaking, concomitant variation only ; anything 
added about production or transmission is metaphysics. 
But the transmissive idea is preferable to the produc- 
tive, because it fits psychical-research facts better, and 
for philosophical reasons also. It provides a wider 
scheme than materialism, and is supported by prac- 
tically all philosophic and religious teachers. It is the 
root-principle, for instance, of Plato and the Upani- 
shads. 

But here, as already said, we get into metaphysics. 
This the spiritualist tries to avoid. Instead of arguing 
about whether a spirit can or cannot exist without 
"organs" or a visible organism, he adopts the more 
scientific mode of beginning with phenomena and rea- 
soning upwards. "Here," he says, "is what happens. 
Make all the tests you like, in order to be sure that the 
things do happen. Record them carefully, along with 
the conditions. Then try various explanatory hypo- 
theses. Many of the facts can be explained fairly satis- 
factorily without going much beyond recognised agen- 



222 SPIRITUALISM 

cies; but if you investigate long, and with an open 
mind, willing to follow where the evidence leads, you 
will probably find that no theory except the spiritistic 
one will cover all the facts." 

Does not this sound more sane and more sensible 
than the dogmatic negations which non-investigators 
utter so fluently^ To take another instance, a reviewer 
(wisely and modestly remaining anonymous) in the 
English Review (October, 1910, pagt 563), says: 

" 'Surely no baser delusion ever obtained dominance 
over the weak mind of man.' So Tyndall; and there 
is something refreshing about his downright and sledge- 
hammer style when we compare it with the trimmed 
and guarded utterances of modern inquirers." 1 

There certainly is. There was also something re- 
freshing about the downright and sledgehammer way 
in which Stephenson was ridiculed when he thought 
he could make an engine run thirty miles an hour, on 
rails. Similar refreshment may be had by reading about 
the absurd idea (as it was then thought) of lighting 
houses by sending a sort of smoke into them through 
tubes. In like manner hypnotism was both laughed 
at and denied, the orthodox doctors saying, without 
any first-hand knowledge, that Dr. Esdaile's and Dr. 
Elliotson's subjects, who went through major opera- 
tions in the sleep, must have been shamming anaesthesia. 
Nay, even in a less extraordinary matter, and with the 
backing of a man like Sir Humphry Davy, the dis- 
covery of the properties of nitrous oxide was ignored 
for half a century; and it took nearly the same time to 

1 Review of Podmore's "Newer Spiritualism." 



MATERIALISTIC OBJECTIONS 223 

convince anthropologists that worked flints were found 
along with the bones of extinct animals. McEnery's 
discoveries at King's Hole Cavern, Torquay, were 
laughed at, but were fully confirmed later, with much 
more besides. Every new discovery and invention has 
had to run the same gauntlet of ridicule, more or less. 
We have now learnt sense enough to be less dogmatic 
than formerly, and the real leaders in science are open- 
minded, but there is still much ignorance and negative 
dogmatism. On this point Huxley has some wise 
words : 

Strictly speaking, x am unaware of anything that has a 
right to the title of an "impossibility," except a contradiction 
in terms. There are impossibilities logical, but none natural. 
A "round square," a "present past," "two parallel lines that 
intersect," are impossibilities, because ideas denoted by the 
predicates round, present, intersect, are contradictory of the 
ideas denoted by the subjects, square, past, parallel. But 
walking on water, or turning water into wine, or procreation 
without male intervention, are plainly not impossibilities in 
this sense. 1 

As Andrew Lang humorously remarks: "To the 
horror of some of his admirers, Mr. Huxley would not 
call the existence of demons and demoniacal possession 
'impossible/ " 2 Mr. Lang himself, however, expresses 
his "abhorrence and contempt" 3 for Spiritualism, of 
which he confessedly had no first-hand knowledge ; and 
he says elsewhere that he would not willingly find 
himself in the company even of Mrs. Piper. He did 
once find himself in the presence of a professional me- 



1 "Science and Christian Tradition," p. 197. 

2 "The Making of Religion," p. 296. 

8 "Cock Lane and Common Sense," p. 22. 



224 SPIRITUALISM 

dium, but it was not his fault. It was an accident, as 
he was careful to explain in his Presidential Address 
to the S.P.R., evidently with a whimsical perception 
of his own fastidiousness. Perhaps if he had risked 
the adventure of a few deliberate sittings he might have 
found the mediums less terrible than he feared ; though 
it is undeniable that some individuals of the species 
would have bored him pretty badly. 

Mr. Edward Clodd is another of these a priorists. 
In the Strand Magazine for July, 1917, he says that 
the inception of Spiritualism was in fraud, that its 
history is a record of the detection of "sorry rascals," 
that their dupes are "impelled by the wish to believe," 
and so forth. This imputation of prejudice comes 
queerly from one who is so obviously suffering from 
that complaint. He has made up his mind, and has 
made it up so hermetically that it is impermeable to 
evidence; or, rather, like certain membranes which ex- 
hibit the phenomenon of osmosis, it is permeable to 
one sort only — the sort which fits Mr. Clodd's wishes. 
And this sort is seized on without examination. Mr. 
Clodd repeats, for example, the old story that Mrs. 
Piper once "confessed" that she had had no communi- 
cations from spirits. 1 If Mr. Clodd means to imply 
that she confessed fraud, he is mistaken. She ex- 
pressed the quite legitimate opinion that her phenom- 
ena might be due to telepathy from some incarnate 
person. The article in the New York Herald (Octo- 
ber, 1901) makes no suggestion of fraud, and refers 
to Mrs. Piper in respectful terms. The use of the 



i« 



The Question: If a man die, shall he live again?" pp. 191-2, 297. 



MATERIALISTIC OBJECTIONS 225 

word "confession" by hostile critics is a skilful way of 
suggesting fraud, but the innuendo is baseless. Full 
details are to be found in the Journal of the S.P.R., 
vol. x., pp. 142-8-50. Moreover, the evidentiality of 
the case does not depend on Mrs. Piper's opinion. 
She was in trance at the sittings, and knew nothing of 
what happened except what she was told afterwards. 
Long and stringent investigations were carried out, as 
we have already seen, by Dr. Hodgson and others, and 
the evidence is there for anyone to read. If critics 
will meet it fairly, instead of making unworthy and 
baseless insinuations — which, indeed, are irrelevant — 
they would be more likely to help in the discovery of 
truth, for researchers are rfcady to give up their theory 
if a more reasonable one can be supplied. 

Moreover, Mr. Clodd's language is regrettably emo- 
tional, betraying violent prejudice. He says that "the 
bias-ruled attitude of the inquirers is wholly uncritical ; 
the power of suggestion paralyses them; they are pre- 
pared to see and hear and believe all they are told." 
And "all is nauseating, frivolous, mischievous, spurious 
drivel" (Strand^ page 54). 

Compare this hysterical language with the quiet sen- 
tences of the official leaflet on the aims of those in- 
quirers who make up the Society for Psychical Research, 
and the due sanity of the final note, all of which are 
quoted in extenso in the seventh chapter of Part I. 
(pp. 70-72). 

Which shows a "bias-ruled attitude" — Mr. Clodd 
or the S.P.R.*? Which uses frantic adjectives, and 
which a calm and judicial phrasing"? The answer may 
safely be left to the reader. Finally, how much in- 



226 SPIRITUALISM 

vestigation has Mr. Clodd done*? He fortunately in- 
forms us himself. He attended one seance, about fifty 
years ago, but has forgotten most of what happened. 
(Letter to International Psychical Gazette, April, 
1918.) Apparently he did not even take notes! 
Thus equipped, then, he sets out to controvert the 
opinions of those who have investigated for thirty or 
forty years. 

Again, in his book, "The Question: if a man die, 
shall he live again ?" he shows that Spiritualism has 
existed in all ages and places, and apparently makes 
the curious inference that therefore it must be untrue. 
Another anthropologist, Mr. Andrew Lang, himself no 
spiritualist, adduced precisely the same facts as sug- 
gesting that there is likely to be some truth in the 
similar modern phenomena. But Mr. Clodd, secure 
in the knowledge which his partly- forgotten sitting of 
fifty years ago gave him, knows well that these things 
cannot be, and that all believers in them are "bias- 
ruled and uncritical." And though Mr. Clodd makes 
much use of the negative arguments and assumptions 
of Mr. Podmore, who as arch-sceptic to the S.P.R. 
served a useful purpose as brake, we must remember 
that even Mr. Podmore admitted the fact of telepathy, 
and in his last book went even farther, saying: "Taken 
as a whole, the correspondences are so numerous and 
precise, and the possibility of leakage to Mrs. Piper 
through normal channels so effectually excluded, that 
it is impossible to doubt that we have here proof of a 
supernormal agency of some kind — either telepathy by 
the trance intelligence from the sitter, or some kind of 



MATERIALISTIC" OBJECTIONS 227 

communication with the dead." 1 The spiritistic in- 
terpretation, it will be noted, is seriously stated as an 
alternative. 

Another critic, of indubitable scientific eminence and 
commanding our respect as to his opinions on subjects 
which he has studied, is Sir E. Ray Lankester, who 
has informed us that "modern biologists (I am glad to 
be able to affirm) do not accept the hypothesis of 
'telepathy' advocated by Sir Oliver Lodge, nor that 
of the intrusions of disembodied spirits pressed upon 
them by others of the same school." 2 Whether Sir 
Ray Lankester can speak for "modern biologists" en 
bloc may be doubted, for one remembers a few who 
would probably object; but, even if he could, it does 
not matter. A biologist has a right to an opinion on 
his own specialty and on other subjects also to the 
degree in which he has studied them, as Sir Oliver 
Lodge, though a physicist, has a right to an opinion 
on psychical questions because he has given a great deal 
of time to them over a period of more than thirty 
years. And this is what Sir Oliver said, in a famous 
utterance : 

*"The Newer Spiritualism," p. 222. 

a "The Kingdom of Man," p. 65. It is amusing to note that another 
Rationalist, Mr. Joseph McCabe, evidently feeling himself in a tight 
corner between the Scylla of telepathy and the Charybdis of Spirit- 
ualism, plumped for telepathy, saying that the evidence for it is 
"satisfactory." {Literary Guide, March, 1916.) Later, however, be- 
ing confronted with Sir Ray Lankester's opinion, Mr. McCabe dis- 
tractedly made a half-recantation of his telepathy pronouncement, 
and now seems to be in a very uncomfortable position; for he ap- 
parently knows enough about the subject to be aware that nothing 
less than telepathy will explain. If he will only investigate for him- 
self, patiently and with as little prejudice as possible, he will yet 
attain salvation, as other Rationalists have done before him. 



228 SPIRITUALISM 

The evidence — nothing new or sensational, but cumulative 
and demanding prolonged serious study — to my mind goes to 
prove that discarnate intelligence, under certain conditions, 
may interact with us on the material side, thus indirectly com- 
ing within our scientific ken; and that gradually we may hope 
to attain some understanding of the nature of a larger, perhaps 
ethereal, existence, and of the conditions regulating intercourse 
across the chasm. 1 

It is to be noted that the question is treated as a 
scientific one, to be settled according to the evidence. 
Belief or unbelief is to be decided by the facts. 

But Sir E. Ray Lankester came along and said that 
he thought Sir Oliver Lodge's statement "singularly 
out of place at a meeting for the advancement of 
science." 2 He did not say why. He did not proceed 
to prove that the subject was not amenable to scientific 
method; and, if it is, it is eminently suitable for dis- 
cussion by the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. Then why did the famous biologist 
show hostility*? To some readers it seemed clear that 
the secret was emotional bias. Sir Ray Lankester does 
not like psychical research, and, of course, he has a 
perfect right to dislike it, and to attack it, as indeed 
he does very vigorously. In Bedrock, in 1912, there 
was a massed attack on it by Sir Ray Lankester, Sir 
Bryan Donkin, and Dr. Ivor Tuckett. Sir Oliver 
Lodge replied, and the present writer skirmished round 
in another article. What was chiefly apparent was 
that, whichever side was right, our side had done the 
most investigating. The others had read books, but 

1 "Continuity," pp. 90-1. British Association Address, 1913. 

2 Daily Telegraph, September 30, 1913. 



MATERIALISTIC OBJECTIONS 229 

they did not seem to have experimented much. If 
they had they did not say so. 

What I wish to emphasise is that, whether we are 
right or wrong in our conclusions — I venture to speak 
for all psychical investigators — psychical research is ab- 
solutely and essentially scientific. It observes, records, 
tabulates, and infers. It tries to get at the true facts, 
and then builds its hypotheses thereon, instead of de- 
ciding beforehand, as some critics do, swayed by preju- 
dice, that this or that cannot happen, and refusing to 
"waste time" — as one of them said — over examination 
of what they have already decided against. This lat- 
ter course is magnificent, but it is not science. It is 
mysticism, reliance on the "Inner Light." Psychical 
research will have none of this. It wants objective 
facts. Its method is precisely that of its materialistic 
opponents, but they do not push inquiry far enough. 

Sir Ray Lankester demands "experimental" verifica- 
tion, and the demand is legitimate when fulfilment is 
possible. But there are many things, in other sciences 
as well as in psychical research, which cannot be pro- 
duced to order; e.g. volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, 
the fall of meteorites, thunderstorms, even rain and the 
ordinary variations of temperature and the like. 1 We 
can only observe these phenomena as they occur; but 
we can nevertheless observe them scientifically when 
they do occur. So with psychical phenomena. We 
observe, record, classify, and infer. In all these 
processes we are liable to human error, as in all other 

*The Shah of Persia, visiting Greenwich Observatory, is said to 
have ordered an eclipse. The Astronomer Royal was unable to 
oblige, and the Shah suggested his decapitation. 



230 SPIRITUALISM 

investigations. But we are as careful as possible, and 
if we make mistakes we are glad to have them pointed 
out. Hitherto our results have met with no victorious 
criticism. They stand unshaken, and we are justified 
in concluding, provisionally at least, that we have 
achieved some measure of true scientific advance. 



CHAPTER IV 

ROMAN CATHOLIC AND MYSTICAL OBJECTIONS 

THE materialists, as we have seen — also some 
philosophers — deny that the phenomena happen 
as described. They prejudge the question. Because 
no such phenomena have forced themselves on their 
attention, they disbelieve, and we understand and can 
partly excuse their disbelief; but they go wrong when 
they deny the experience of others, concerning which 
they ought to keep an open mind. As Sir Walter Scott 
neatly says in his introduction to "The Fair Maid of 
Perth," there is a vulgar incredulity as well as a vulgar 
credulity, and many a sceptic finds it "easier to doubt 
than to examine" ; easier still, apparently, to deny. 

The Roman Catholic, on the other hand, agrees that 
the things happen, but says that they are the work, not 
of human spirits, but of devils. Lord Alfred Douglas 
says in a letter to the Sunday Times of September 16th, 
1917: 

As a Catholic I am forbidden to take part in a spiritual 
seance under pain of mortal sin, nor have I the least tempta- 
tion to do so. But before I became a Catholic I occasionally 
dabbled in Spiritualism, and my own experiences were quite 
enough to convince me that the phenomena are sometimes per- 
fectly genuine, and perfectly unaccountable except on a super- 
natural basis. 

The Catholic Church allows that it is perfectly possible to 

231 



232 SPIRITUALISM 

obtain supernatural results at spiritualistic seances. It does 
not deny the phenomena. But it utterly denies that the 
"spirits" which give communications are the souls of departed 
mortals. The phenomena of Spiritualism are, the Church 
teaches, produced by devils and evil spirits. Their object is 
to deceive and betray the human race. Continual indulgence 
in Spiritualism leads to madness, folly, and despair, and the 
loss of real faith. . . . The Catholic Truth Society publishes 
various penny pamphlets, any one of which is quite enough to 
settle the question for "men of good will," because it is based 
on the wisdom of the ages to which we are all the heirs if we 
care to take up our inheritance. 

Except for the rather sweeping implication that no 
man of goodwill can remain unconverted by one of the 
penny pamphlets mentioned, this is a temperate and 
reasonable statement. The Church has a long history 
behind it and is the repository of much gathered and 
conserved wisdom. For many people its prohibition 
of spiritualistic practices is undoubtedly wise. In past 
times it may have been wise for all. 

But here a question arises. Is a prohibition to hold 
good for ever, in spite of changed conditions? In 
pre-scientific days, when there was no body of organ- 
ised knowledge and no conception of modern method, 
it is probable that any giving of the rein to psychical 
investigation of an inevitably crude sort would have 
retarded the arrival of science, putting human thought 
on a wrong tack — wrong for those times. But things 
are very different now. May it not be that what was 
wrong then may be right now; not for everyone but 
for increasing numbers? Children are rightly forbid- 
den to use matches or experiment with nitric acid ; but 
adults use both with advantage. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC OBJECTIONS 233 

And we must remember that though there is such a 
thing as a wise conservatism, this doctrine of reliance 
on the wisdom of the past, if too unqualifiedly ac- 
cepted, would result in universal stagnation. It could 
have been urged, and no doubt was urged, against 
Christianity when Christianity was a new thing, both 
by orthodox Jews and by educated pagans of the 
Julian type. "Let us abide," they might say, "by the 
Law and the Prophets, by the wisdom of Abraham 
our father, by the oracles and gods of centuries of 
Pythian and other worship." The case of the Jew 
against Christianity would seem as strong as the case 
of Rome against Protestantism or against Spiritualism. 
But in each case the conservative has been wrong; 
wrong, that is, in thinking he possessed absolute truth 
and in trying to stamp out the innovation ; right, more 
or less, in acting as a break to extravagance, in criti- 
cising and cautioning. Progress is achieved by action 
and reaction. Motion is balanced by attraction, and 
the right orbit is maintained: we need not blame 
Roman orthodoxy or any other orthodoxy for making 
its protest, but neither must we allow more than a pro- 
test ; we must tolerate no Prussian suppression by force 
of those who think they see a better truth or a further 
revelation of any kind. 

The history of science shows how almost every ad- 
vance in knowledge has seemed to encroach — and often 
has encroached on the province of the priest. But we 
now see that each discovery widened our conception 
of the Universe and therefore enlarged our idea of its 
Creator. The heavens declare the glory of God much 
more emphatically than they did when men held the 



234 SPIRITUALISM 

little Ptolemaic theory. We now see that we may 
trust the advance of knowledge : that it is right to seek 
it. "Whatever science can establish, that it has a 
right to establish : more than a right, it has a duty. If 
there be things which we are not intended to know, 
be assured that we shall never know them. If we re- 
frain from examination and inquiry, for no better rea- 
son than the fanciful notion that perhaps we may be 
trespassing on forbidden ground, such hesitation argues 
a pitiful lack of faith in the goodwill and friendliness 
and power of the forces that make for righteousness." 1 
And, as to the devil-theory, it certainly cannot be 
proved. Historically — in Christianity — it began by 
the Church classing the heathen gods as devils. These 
gods, as we have already seen (pp. 37-38), may in 
many instances have been human spirits, which were 
called daimones or elohim by some writers. And, the 
teaching and example of Christ being more potent for 
good than anything these "gods" could say or do, they 
were devils, comparatively speaking, whatever they 
were; and the Church was right in combating them. 
But, we repeat, is the situation the same now? These 
phenomena, whatever their cause, are leading people 
out of materialism to a position where religion becomes 
possible once more. As Myers said, they are proving 
the preamble of all religions — the existence of a spir- 
itual world. Does it not seem that this step is in a 
good direction, and therefore hardly to be attributed 
to evil agency? Moreover, the Roman Church en- 
courages the practice of praying to the Saints. Spir- 
itualists are engaged in precisely this practice, when 

1 Sir Oliver Lodge's "Man and the Universe," p. 209 (5th edition). 



ROMAN CATHOLIC OBJECTIONS 235 

they ask for helpful messages or signals from friends 
on the other side. The difference is that these friends 
have not been officially canonised at Rome. But who 
at this date will affirm that the Roman Church has a 
monopoly of sainthood^ 

As to the spirits' teaching, it seems to be always or 
practically always in line with high moral standards. 
In the matter of belief it is always theistic, always 
reverent; but not much concerned with intellectual 
niceties such as occupied the minds of Bishops in 
Church Councils. It does not debate whether the 
Third Person of the Trinity proceeds from both the 
First and the Second or from the First alone — a ques- 
tion which in its day split the Church in two. It is 
more practical; more like the teaching of Jesus Him- 
self. Regarding spiritualistic utterances, the various 
controversialists "have admitted moral elevation, but 
— from their various opposing points of view — have 
agreed in deploring theological laxity." 1 Perhaps their 
right course would be to press forward in the direc- 
tion which they are agreed is good, and to leave those 
diverging branch-lines which may be individual illu- 
sions. It can hardly be supposed that moral teaching 
which commands the assent of all sorts of believers 
can be diabolic. 

Indeed the fulminations of some of the leading Cath- 
olics, like the diatribes of extremists of other clans, are 
self -condemned by their own violence. Says Father 
Bernard Vaughan : "To my thinking, one reason above 
others for not entering into it and practising it, for 
not attempting to stretch the thin veil dividing this 

1 Myers's "Human Personality," vol. i., p. 133. 



236 SPIRITUALISM 

side from that, is the fact that a scientific man like Sir 
Oliver Lodge should be bamboozled by spirits travesty- 
ing and personifying the human soul gone under. Do 
you know, my brethren, I have just as much right for 
saying that the trance communicators and controllers 
and spirits that come and rap out nonsense and tap 
balderdash and show themselves in vision — I have 
quite as much right and reason for saying they are 
Satanic spirits as he for calling them human souls." 1 

It naturally occurs to one that the "right" so to 
pronounce can hardly be based on firsthand knowledge, 
since investigation is condemned as mortal sin, and 
the good Catholic must necessarily obtain his informa- 
tion at secondhand or still more remotely; and, further, 
the Index Expurgations no doubt bans spiritualistic 
literature pretty thoroughly. 2 

The fact is, such critics are still fighting against the 
advance of knowledge by the objective method, as they 
have fought against it from the beginning. In the 
physical sciences they have been routed and expelled, 
but in their desperate zeal for the authority of the 
Church they hold out against the pioneers in other 
regions. What they lack is faith — faith in God, who 
has given us implements wherewith to explore and 
learn about the universe in which He has placed us. 

1 The Universe, June 8, 1917. 

2 There is, however, a book, "The Dangers of Spiritualism" (Sands 
and Co.: London, 1901), by a man who investigated for himself, and 
apparently found that in some cases the development of mediumship 
caused moral deterioration. The anonymous author — whose identity 
is now well known — became a Catholic, and naturally accepted the 
Church's views. His experiences must have been unusual. I have 
never come across anything of the kind. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC OBJECTIONS 237 

To refuse is to flout Him. Ecclesiasticism is idol- 
worship. 

Then there is the objection of the mystic, who urges 
that the proper aim of the human spirit is the attain- 
ment of union with God, in a state which transcends 
Time and most of the other conditions of our present 
life, and is therefore hardly expressible or comprehen- 
sible to us now. Accordingly, the mystic has little 
interest in Spiritualism and psychical research, except 
as regards their usefulness in disproving materialism 
and thus opening the way to a rational religion. He 
looks on the kind of after-death life described by Spir- 
itualists as an intermediate state, an astral plane, per- 
haps somewhat of an improvement on the present one, 
but not at all a place to linger in. Indeed he often 
objects to any psychical investigation, because it is a 
misdirection of energy, a using up of force over ex- 
ternal trivialities when we might be pressing upwards 
to the Divine by the inner way. 

There is some truth in all this, and to many good 
people it appeals with fully constraining power. Ac- 
cordingly they follow their consciences in the matter, 
and are right in so doing. To others, however, who 
rest equally on the same fundamental basis of intui- 
tion, it seems that this very thoroughgoing mysticism 
is a little one-sided. While believing, as indeed all 
Spiritualists believe, that the next stage is not our abid- 
ing home and that we shall progress to states incom- 
prehensible to us now, it nevertheless seems to us that 
each of these stages will have its lessons to teach, and 
that the right thing is to take them as they come. The 
mystic hopes for a sort of short cut to ineffable bliss; 



238 SPIRITUALISM 

but his expectation seems premature. He will prob- 
ably have much to learn before he gets there. Our 
ideas of values are much changed since the days when 
the stifler of Reason thought that he did God service. 
We now regard Reason as a divine gift, equally with 
other powers; to be exercised in learning about this 
very wonderful universe in which its Fashioner, our 
Father, has placed us. The intellectual virtues, as 
Myers said, are now necessary to salvation. Knowl- 
edge is good, as well as Love. Indeed love to our 
fellows can best be manifested through knowledge ; im- 
provement in the conditions of life — not material con- 
ditions only — has come about through applied science. 
And what a widening of the mind, what an enlarge- 
ment of our conception of the universe, have been 
achieved, say, since Newton ! Think of the means of 
locomotion and communication! Until the beginning 
of the present century we could travel no faster than 
Julier Caesar did, and messages had to be carried. 
Now we fly, and the ether carries our messages at 
speeds which render the most distant points on the 
earth's surface only so to speak next door. It is not 
merely the utility of the thing that appeals; it is the 
widening of our conceptions from provincialism to 
cosmopolitanism. A Race consciousness is awaking. 
The individualism of the solitary savage, improving 
to a tribal and then national conscience, is merging 
into the higher perception that we are members of one 
family; the Brotherhood of Man appears. To this 
end applied science has been the chief contributor. We 
cannot think of distant people until we know of their 
existence; we cannot fee] any brotherliness towards 



ROMAN CATHOLIC OBJECTIONS 239 

them until we know something about them. How 
much did we know of China a few hundred years ago*? 
But now we learn from to-day's paper what happened 
in Peking yesterday. 

The modern temper, then, will probably not accede 
to any suppression of the intellectual virtues; and 
though too much time may be given by this or that 
individual to psychical research — in the opinion of 
others — it is for himself to decide, and our faith is 
that the research is good. Anything can be overdone. 
Darwin regretted his too great absorption in science, 
which robbed him of power to appreciate poetry and 
music; but the fact of his too great absorption does 
not condemn biology. And psychical research is as 
scientific as biology, and as justifiable. "The least 
justifiable attitude," says Sir Oliver Lodge, "is that 
which holds that there are certain departments of truth 
in the universe which it is not lawful to investigate." 
We must guard against excess, which is possible in any 
direction; but we must also guard against any attempt 
to bar the way to knowledge, or any attempt to dictate 
its methods. The mystic finds knowledge by the inner 
way; well and good; but he must not try to force his 
way upon us. We also have our inner light, and for 
us it is right to try the outer way. Both are legitimate 
and each should tolerate the other. The hill of Zion 
is one, but there are different methods of approach. 



CHAPTER V 

SOME PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 

IN current Protestant criticisms of Spiritualism we 
find a great deal of regrettable ignorance. For 
example, in a weekly paper called The Christian, for 
March ist, 1917, there was a leading article on "The 
Snare of Spiritualism," which contains the following 
remarkable piece of rhetoric : 

Granting, for the sake of argument, that some of the alleged 
Spiritualistic phenomena are genuine, would we really wish to 
subject our holy dead to the will and whim of a medium, and 
the clumsy and undignified expedient of "table-turning"? 
Would we not rather agree with Joseph Conrad that it is 
intolerable to suppose that the august dead are at the mercy 
of the incantations of Eusapia Palladino or Mrs. Piper? 

We would indeed ; and we do not suppose anything of 
the kind ; nor does any Spiritualist known to me. 1 

Spiritualists make no claim to be able to "call up" 
any particular spirit. They seek to give good condi- 
tions, the chief of which is a quiet passivity and har- 
mony, and leave the initiative to those on the other 
side. However greatly we may differ from the Spir- 

1 The Bishop of Chelmsford similarly is reported to have said that, 
"it is beneath the dignity of the future life to think that the souls of 
men and women who are gone to be with Christ should be at the beck 
of any one who wishes to call them up" {Church Times, March i, 
1918). 

240 



PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 241 

itualists, no antagonist who has investigated or even 
read in the most elementary way can make such absurd 
statements about the dead being liable to "the will 
and whim of a medium" or "at the mercy of the in- 
cantations of Eusapia Palladino or Mrs. Piper." 
Spiritualists know well enough, and say so continually, 
that they have to take what comes. Results cannot be 
commanded. Such "criticism" as the foregoing almost 
makes one despair. Instructed criticism is always wel- 
come, and there are many points at which Spiritualism 
is open to attack; but this necromantic charge is sheer, 
unqualified, abysmal ignorance, and it is astonishing 
and depressing to find people in responsible positions 
exerting their influence to the utmost of their power 
in a definite direction, on a subject which they obvi- 
ously know nothing about. 

Here may be mentioned and illustrated the eager 
and reckless way in which some of these critics seize 
on anything that supports their prejudices, without 
stopping to test the truth of their weapons. 

"New York is said to have one asylum devoted 
solely to people who lose their reason through traffick- 
ing in Spiritualism, and our own asylums are said to 
receive many victims." * It seems that these things 
"are said," but there is a notable absence of informa- 
tion as to who says them; and though they may be 
true, it is clear that ordinary fair play requires that 
some evidence should be given when such a serious 
charge is made. It is quite likely that there are insane 
Spiritualists, as there are insane people of all colours 

1 Joyful News, October 4, 1917, a Wesleyan paper. Article by the 
editor. 



242 SPIRITUALISM 

and sizes and sects; but it has never yet been proved 
or even rendered probable that insanity occurs in a 
higher proportion among Spiritualists than among 
other people. My own impression is that the kind 
of orthodoxy represented by Joyful News has been 
responsible for more insanity than Spiritualism has. 
It is comprehensible enough that people should go mad 
when told repeatedly and emphatically that they will 
suffer everlasting torture if they do not "believe'' as 
they are ordered to. I know of several such cases; 
religious melancholia and mania are common; but I 
have not yet known a spiritualist who has become in- 
sane, and my experience is confirmed by that of several 
magistrates who sign certificates of lunacy. Testimony 
from one of them will be found in The Two Worlds for 
August 24th, 1917. Mr. Jones offered £100 to any 
charity if Dr. Robertson could substantiate his state- 
ments about Spiritualism causing insanity. The chal- 
lenge was not accepted. 1 

I am informed by Mr. Ernest W. Oaten, President 
of the Spiritualists' National Union, that during his 
twenty-five years' close association with Spiritualism 
he has known of three spiritualists, and three only, 
who have been taken to lunatic asylums. In each 
case other members of the family, not spiritualists, had 
previously become insane; in other words, there was a 
congenital taint, and to this the insanity must be at- 
tributed rather than to the Spiritualism. Moreover, 

*Just after writing the foregoing, I received a pathetic and well- 
expressed letter from an asylum patient who, it appeared, had just 
seen a statement of Sir A. Conan Doyle's that there is no everlasting 
hell. He asked if he might rely on this. Orthodoxy had driven 
the man mad on this point, and had ruined a useful life. 



PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 243 

in one of the three cases the man had had so much 
trouble by bereavement and in other ways — which Mr. 
Oaten, having known him well, described to me in 
detail — that great depression would have been in- 
evitable in anyone passing through such an accumula- 
tion of disaster and tragedy. But the man was con- 
fined as a precautionary measure only, and he was out 
in fourteen weeks. He has been all right ever since, 
and has built up a prosperous business. 

And if it is claimed that though spiritualists them- 
selves do not go mad but that the (apparently weaker- 
minded) non-spiritualists do when they touch the sub- 
ject, the answer is that insanity has decreased during 
the last two years, for the first time since 1859; and 
these two years have admittedly seen a greater increase 
in spiritualistic interest among the general public. Ac- 
cording to the Evening News (London) of November 
5th, 1917, quoting the report of the Board of Control, 
there were 134,029 lunatics under control in England 
and Wales at the beginning of the year. "This shows 
a decrease of 3, 1 59 on the figures of the previous year, 
although in 1915 there was a decline of 3,278 cases. 
These are the only occasions since 1859 when the 
lunacy returns have failed to show a rise." 

This is a sufficient answer to those who assert, with- 
out proof, that Spiritualism is filling the asylums. It 
would almost seem to indicate that, on the contrary, 
the consolations of spiritualistic belief are saving from 
insanity many who otherwise would have lost their 
reason through grief. Several people have indeed told 
me that in their case it has been so; the new knowledge 
has saved them from mental disaster. 



244 SPIRITUALISM 

It is on record that W. T. Stead was a vigorous 
opponent of the stage so long as he had never entered 
a theatre, but that he changed his mind when he ob- 
tained experience. The warnings against Spiritualism 
remind us of him. "If a Spiritualistic Church is 
opened, do not go to its meetings, even if you are 
pressed to do so by others, and do your best to keep 
others out. God only knows what will happen to you 
if you enter. Keep outside ! I warn you to keep away 
from the Spiritualistic mediums, for they may have a 
power over you, and then wreck your health and ruin 
your joy for the rest of your life, while they lead you 
to everlasting destruction" — and much more to the 
same effect. 1 

Comment on such unsupported ravings is unneces- 
sary. 

There is a certain amount of difficulty felt by some 
minds on account of the "triviality" of alleged com- 
munications. Prebendary A. Caldecott, Professor of 
Moral and Mental Philosophy at King's College, Lon- 
don, is reported as having said that in Sir Oliver 
Lodge's book "Raymond" he had found only two or 
three pieces of evidence "which seemed to have any 
solemnity about them at all, and they were concerned 
with the most trivial things. On a subject of this 
kind all trivialities were painful, but it was a striking 

1 Mr. Parker, quoted by the Editor, apparently with approval, in 
Joyful News, October 4th, 1917. Somewhat similarly, even the Master 
of the Temple (Dr. E. W. Barnes) says that spiritualistic practices 
are "often gravely harmful," but gives no evidence, as his legal hear- 
ers would note (Sermon, February 4th, 1917. Christian Common- 
wealth supplement, No. 327, March 14th, 1917). 



PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 245 

fact that trivialities were all that the evidence could 
produce." 1 

The facts are (1) that "solemnity" is no proof of 
anything, and its presence or absence has nothing to do 
with the evidential problem; (2) that trivial personal 
details are probably the best evidence of personal 
identity, far more convincing than any amount of the 
"solemn" religious talk which Prebendary Caldecott 
seems to think desirable; (3) that they are not "pain- 
ful" but are, on the other hand, extremely consoling, 
as when a soldier boy sends his love to correctly named 
sisters and brothers who are unknown to the medium; 
and (4) that the statement about trivialities being all 
that the evidence produces is incorrect. The litera- 
ture of spiritualism abounds with religious communica- 
tions — A. J. Davis wrote nearly thirty volumes of 
that kind of thing, and there are hundreds of others — 
and many of them are impressive to those who seek 
emotional qualities such as "solemnity." But they are 
not evidential. Science requires facts and tries to con- 
sider them without the intrusion of disturbing emotion. 

In short, there is a tendency on the part of some well- 
meaning but prejudiced people to ignore real evidence 
because it is not sensational. Clerics are perhaps spe- 
cially liable to this, because they are largely concerned 
with influencing people through their emotions. A 
preacher is not continually engaged in the search for 
truth, as the man of science is; and he needs to be on 
his guard against the temptation to rhetoric which doth 

1 Church Family Newspaper, November 2nd, 1917. Conference on 
"Life after Death," at Caxton Hall, organised by the Christian Evi- 
dence Society. 



246 SPIRITUALISM 

so easily beset him. Eloquence is well when it is 
well employed, on the side of truth; but it is com- 
mensurately evil when employed on the side of un- 
truth. It is not a monopoly of the good; the Devil 
is a persuasive speaker, according to Milton and other 
authorities. Evil is wrought by want of thought (and 
knowledge) as well as want of heart. We must learn 
that it is definitely wrong to express strong opinions 
and to pose as teachers in matters which we have not 
adequately studied. 

But when our clerical friends move on to things 
more within their own domain they become at least 
interesting and their points worthy of consideration. 
For instance, the Editor of Joyful News (issue just 
quoted, October 4th, 1917), while admitting that 
many curious things happen and that some people 
have second sight and what not, is nevertheless hostile 
to Spiritualism, and quotes Biblical passages against it, 
such as Deuteronomy xviii. 9, Leviticus xix. 31, xx. 
6-27, Exodus xxii. 18, 1 Chronicles x. 13, 14. A 
Wesleyan minister did the same thing recently, and 
imagined he had thereby disposed of Sir A. Conan* 
Doyle. And of course it is legitimate enough to quote 
the Bible, and any quotation from it must have our 
serious consideration. But, in all fairness, and with- 
out any desire to score points, but calmly and quietly 
with the sole desire to get at the truth, we may ask, 
will these orthodox friends still maintain, after reflec- 
tion, that their Biblical prohibitions apply to-day*? 
For instance, Leviticus xix. certainly says : "Turn ye not 
unto them that have familiar spirits" : but it also says : 
"When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt 



PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 247 

not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt 
thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest . . . thou 
shalt now sow thy field with two kinds of seed ; neither 
shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds 
of stuff mingled together ... ye shall not round the 
corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the cor- 
ners of thy beard," and so on, including instructions 
for offering a ram as a sacrifice in a certain kind of 
sin. Does anyone seriously assert that these prohibi- 
tions and laws are binding on us to-day, Does any 
cleric, however scrupulous, insist on his clothing be- 
ing all wool or all cotton, or all silk? Does he exhort 
farmers, in times of dearth — or in any other times — to 
leave the corners of their fields unreaped? If not, if 
these parts of Leviticus xix. are no longer regarded as 
binding, how can it be maintained that verse 31 is 
binding? It is all or none; you cannot select without 
giving away your case. You may say your conscience 
or intuition assures you that verse 31 remains wise and 
valid while the other prohibitions are obsolete, but in 
doing so you are throwing overboard the authority of 
the Scriptures and falling back on your own judgment. 
This you have a perfect right to do; but you can no 
longer shelter behind an impregnable Leviticus; you 
are out in the open, fighting on equal terms, not in a 
concrete blockhouse. You are driven to admit that it 
is a matter for the individual conscience, as indeed it is ; 
which is a very different conclusion from the confident 
prohibition with which you started out. Other people 
have consciences and judgment as well as the Editor of 
Joyful News. 

One occasionally sees the parable about the rich man 



248 SPIRITUALISM 

and Lazarus (Luke xvi.) cited as a Biblical anti- 
Spiritualistic pronouncement. This seems to arise from 
a mistaken recollection that a "great gulf" is said to be 
fixed between the dead and the living, and that com- 
munication is impossible. But it is plain enough in 
the parable that the great gulf is between "Hades" and 
"Abraham's bosom," thus preventing any sending of 
Lazarus to the rich man to cool his tongue. This be- 
ing impossible, Dives asks that Lazarus may be sent 
to earth, to warn Dives' living brothers of the after- 
death retribution for evil. Abraham does not say that 
this is impossible; he says nothing of any gulf in that 
direction, between the dead and the living. All he says 
is that it would not be any use, Dives' brothers evident- 
ly being settled in their ways, or perhaps because they 
held the opinions of Father Bernard Vaughan and 
would have regarded the apparition of a well-meaning 
Lazarus as a diabolic personation, to be exorcised or 
fled from. 

Further, the story is a parable, no doubt intended 
mainly to teach kindness to the suffering, and the fact 
of disciplinary after-death punishment for selfishness 
and callousness. We are not bound to take its details 
of "torment," "flame," etc., as literal facts, any more 
than we are bound to believe that Jesus knew a man 
who fell among thieves between Jerusalem and Jeri- 
cho; or one who gave a dinner and sent out into the 
highways and hedges for guests; or a man with a dis- 
honest steward; or a vineyard-owner whose son was 
murdered by the employees when he went for some 
grapes. The stories were told for the lessons they con- 
veyed. But, even considered as a narration of actual 



PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 249 

fact occurring in the spirit world, the Dives and Laz- 
arus parable is no argument against communication 
from the dead. The great gulf is between good and 
bad spirits, not between the dead and the living. Nay, 
the parable is a confirmation rather than the opposite, 
for, Abraham having replied that it was impossible for 
Lazarus to cross to the spirit in pain, he would pre- 
sumably have said the same, if it had been so, about 
Lazarus going to the five brothers on earth. His re- 
ply that it would be useless is a tacit affirmation that 
it was possible. 

But, proceeding another step, there is another posi- 
tion held by orthodox Protestants, which is a strong 
one and worthy of careful consideration. Certainly 
there is some truth in it, though it need not shut us all 
off from psychical studies, nor, indeed, can it be defi- 
nitely proved. But it ought to be weighed by all of us. 
It is well presented in a sermon by the Bishop of Ox- 
ford, reported in the Church Times of March 23rd, 
1917. 

Dr. Gore argues eloquently that it is healthier to be- 
lieve in a future life because of our faith in God, than 
to rest such belief on piecemeal phenomena. The Jews 
were repeatedly warned against this latter way (here 
Dr. Gore quotes the inevitable Leviticus xix. 31), be- 
ing "debarred from dealings with the dead and, for 
long years, from any revelation of life beyond the grave, 
in order that that belief when it came to them might 
grow out of their assured faith in God and not from 
any real or imaginary communications from the dead." 

And we may admit, as already said, that for many 
people this is still a wise counsel. Those who can, on 



250 SPIRITUALISM 

any ground or none, believe that the Universe is friend- 
ly, that God is in His heaven and also in His world, 
which therefore must ultimately be all right — these 
people need not worry themselves with piecemeal proofs 
of survival, and their energies are therefore free for 
more secularly useful things. On the other hand, many 
good people are without this God-consciousness, and 
faith in the friendliness of the Universe is impossible 
for them without some objective evidence of personal 
survival. These people may be of a lower order of soul 
than those who are strong in faith. They may, or may 
not; it hardly seems to be a point on which any of us 
can dogmatise. But they are, nevertheless, good souls, 
and if they are not allowed to get back to a religious 
position by this particular way, they do not seem likely 
to get back at all ; and it seems a cruel and unwise and 
indeed presumptuous thing to shut a door in their faces. 
There are many ways home to our Father, and we 
should beware how we ban a suffering fellow soul from 
return by the path which is to him the only one possible. 
And, indeed, if he is correctly reported, it is not clear 
that Dr. Gore is quite consistent with himself; for, al- 
though gleams of immortality-belief certainly begin to 
show towards the end of Old Testament times, he ad- 
mits that it was Christ's resurrection that gave the 
proof and the power to the new dispensation. "Not 
only the teaching, but even more, the actual resurrec- 
tion of our Lord from the dead, raised it to a level of 
absolute certainty for the believer in Him." And the 
Bishop does not blame the Early Christians for being 
strengthened in their faith by, or basing their belief on 
— as indubitably in many cases it would be entirely 



PROTESTANT OBJECTIONS 251 

based on — this objective resurrection. If then it was 
right for them to believe on the basis of things per- 
ceived by their senses — the material and phantasmal 
appearances of Jesus after His death, — it is difficult 
to see how it is wrong for people nowadays to base their 
belief on similarly objective evidence. Christ may have 
loved John the most, but He did not condemn Thomas, 
who believed on evidence shown. 

If it is urged that that great Resurrection was a 
unique event — but all events are unique, for no two 
are identical — and that it sufficed for all time, there 
is, perhaps, no answer, as, indeed, there is no proof 
either way. But there are few now who would assert 
this. Most are agreed that God is not dead, that Reve- 
lation is still proceeding, that science and art and liter- 
ature, and all interactions of Nature and man, are 
teaching us continually more and more of the Divine 
mind. Consequently this static conception of religion 
is no longer tenable. There was an advance nineteen 
hundred years ago; there have been many advances 
since — not, indeed, in the root-principles of love to God 
and man, which cannot be transcended, but in methods 
of applying that love and in showing our love of God 
by seeking more knowledge of His ways and His handi- 
work; and it is obscurantism, a sinning against the 
light, if we try to hold back the grand development of 
His self- revelation. Dr. Gore has well said, elsewhere, 
that "the Church in each age should be free to return 
upon its central creed, structure and worship, and 
without loss of continuity re-express its theological 
mind, as it has so often already done, in view of the 



252 SPIRITUALISM 

fresh developments of the intellectual, moral and social 
life of man." * 

In sum, then, we may perhaps say that though psy- 
chical phenomena have been and may continue to be 
for many the only way back to religious faith — by prov- 
ing the preamble of all religions, the existence of a 
spiritual world — it is nevertheless desirable to keep the 
phenomenal side in its proper place. It proves the pre- 
amble, supplies a base ; but it is not itself religion. That 
is an inner thing, and concerns the state and attitude 
of the soul. Spiritualists would do well to ponder the 
utterances of such scholarly and tolerant critics as Dr. 
Gore. There is a possibility that they may learn from 
him to avert their own extinction as a sect by develop- 
ing a greater spirit of worship in their services. Certain 
it is that if Spiritualism as a religion is to continue and 
extend, it must provide, as with many it does provide, 
for wider needs than those concerning only evidence of 
survival. Perhaps the solution may come by the 
churches accepting the essentials of Spiritualistic truth, 
which they had lost sight of and were no longer preach- 
ing. The existence of a separate sect to emphasise sur- 
vival and communication may then become unnecessary. 

1 "Dissertations," p. 213. 



CHAPTER VI 

fechner's theory of life after death 

MANY poets and philosophers have inclined to the 
idea of a World-soul thinking in all of us rather 
than that of a lot of personal and everlasting souls. 
Perhaps the inclination is the result of a feeling that 
there is something comic, yet also unpleasant, in the 
thought of our present little selves enduring to all eter- 
nity. We feel that we should get very tired of our 
own company. We do not want to have John Smith 
eternally to struggle with, as Mrs. Stetson said. Ac- 
cordingly we feel friendly to the pan-psychic idea. As 
Coleridge has it: 

And what if all of animated nature 
Be but organic harps divinely framed, 
That tremble into thought as o'er them sweeps, 
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, 
At once the soul of each, and God of all? 1 

Leibnitz presents the same notion in his "Considera- 
tions sur la Doctrine d'un Esprit universel," and Robert 
Burns echoes Coleridge, in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, as 
also does Fiona McLeod in "Amid the Uplands." The 
best modern philosophic presentation of pan-psychism 
is that of G. T. Fechner, who moreover provides for in- 

la The iEolian Harp." 
253 



254 SPIRITUALISM 

dividual survival within his scheme. Those who object 
to this may console themselves with the thought that 
survival does not involve everlastingness, for it may be 
the fact — probably is — that spirits gradually drop their 
limitations and evolve into something of which we can 
now form no conception; something greater than what 
we know as personality. 

This system is worth some consideration, and we will 
here glance over its main features. 

Fechner's method is the scientific method of analogy. 
He examines that which is best known to us, and then 
uses the process-principles which he finds, as hypotheses 
wherewith to explain the unknown. He has three main 
arguments, each addressed to a cardinal difficulty of the 
survival doctrine. These three difficulties may be in- 
dicated somewhat thus, as propounded by a supposed 
antagonist : 

1 . Inorganic matter has no consciousness associated 
with it. When we die our bodies become inorganic 
matter, sooner or later — almost immediately if we are 
cremated. Therefore, at death, or soon after, con- 
sciousness perishes. 

2. If there is anything in us that is unaffected by 
bodily death, how can it survive individually when it 
no longer has a body to contain it and separate it from 
others ? Will it not rather merge into a general psychic 
mass? — "the Dewdrop slips into the shining Sea." In 
particular, how can we conceive of individual memory 
persisting, when we no longer have a brain? Admit- 
tedly, personal survival must involve memory-continu- 
ity. I shall not be myself unless I carry at least my 
principal recollections with me. And how can I be 



FECHNER'S THEORY 255 

supposed to do that when I no longer have the brain in 
which on a materialistic theory they were stored*? 

3. There is a great break between this life and the 
problematical next, and science demands gradation. 
We must be able to see continuity, smooth transition, 
before we can believe in survival. The future life must 
be seen as a further stage of evolution, not as a meta- 
physical affair islanded off from our present state. 
Fechner deals with these difficulties as follows: 
1. The major premise of this syllogism is false. In- 
organic matter is not unconscious and dead. Living 
creatures have arisen out of the earth. Has, then, the 
dead given birth to the living? Surely not. Is it not 
more reasonable to suppose that the earth is not a dead 
lump but is somehow alive — for science teaches that all 
matter is intensely active on the molecular and elec- 
tronic scale — although her life is manifested in ways 
different from those of our own bodies? If my body is 
the material sustainer or concomitant or expression of 
my spirit, is it not reasonable to suppose that the whole 
earth is the material sustainer or concomitant or ex- 
pression of an Earth-Spirit? May not all planets and 
suns be similarly ensouled — Uriel, the sun-angel, no 
longer a myth but a reality; and all their spirits parts 
and ministers of the God in whom they live and move 
and have their being — the whole material universe be- 
ing His body, and the various subordinate beings serv- 
ing the same purpose in Him as the different human 
faculties serve in the one human mind? He is thus 
immanent in nature. Fechner might have quoted Vir- 
gil's most central, most Virgilian, passage (as Myers 
calls it) in support: 



256 SPIRITUALISM 

One Life through all the immense creation runs, 
One Spirit is the moon's, the sea's, the sun's; 
All forms in the air that fly, on the earth that creep, 
And the unknown nameless monsters of the deep, 
Each breathing thing obeys one Mind's control, 
And in all substance is a single Soul. 1 

The universe is, then, matter saturated with mind. 
The earth, a portion of that universe, is body and spirit, 
as we ourselves are, still smaller portions of that por- 
tion. When we die our bodies rejoin the earth's mass, 
from which indeed they were not severed except as be- 
ing points at which material activity of a peculiar kind 
was manifested; and our spirits rejoin the earth's 
spirit-mass, from which they were not severed except as 
being points at which psychical activity of our particu- 
lar human kind was manifested. The old materialists 
thought that when the body died the psychical activity 
formerly associated with it became extinct. But this is 
not scientific. To suppose annihilation of anything 
is to fly in the face of science, which sees in Nature 
change but not annihilation. The material of our bod- 
ies does not go out of existence at death. It only 
changes its form and the manner of its activity. So 
with our spirits. They are not annihilated. They sur- 
vive, but they change the manner of their activity. 

la 2Eneid," vi. (F. W. H. Myers's "Classical Essays," p. 173). Sir 
Oliver Lodge says, similarly: "The soul in this sense is related to the 
organism in somewhat the same way as the 'Logos' is related to the 
Universe" ("Man and the Universe," p. 106, 5th Edition). The idea 
is, of course, ancient: "According to the Vedanta view of Brahma 
being the cause of the world, the relation between the world and 
Brahma is analogous to that between a body and its soul. Thus Brah- 
ma is the soul of which the whole world is the body." (Hibbert 
Journal, April, 1912; Article, "Brahma," by Professor S. A. Desai, 
Holkar College, Indore, Central India.) 



FECHNER'S THEORY 257 

They rejoin the Earth-Spirit, which is itself a part of 
the immortal Universe-Spirit; thus rejoining, how can 
they die? 

2. But how, exactly, do they rejoin it? Merged, 
like water in a flask which is broken in the sea? No, 
says Fechner. No cessation of individuality is in- 
volved. We continue to exist as conscious selves. Here 
we pass to the next line of argument, for this continu- 
ation of individuality requires support. The body- 
analogy fails, for the body is quickly absorbed into 
other organisms or is converted into a few gases and a 
handful of calcareous ashes : its materials are not anni- 
hilated, but they are so much diffused that we see no 
likeness to the old body. We might thus be led to sup- 
pose that the spirit, if there is such a thing, will simi- 
larly disintegrate: that its elements of sensation, per- 
ception, recollection, and the like, will diffuse, and its 
recognisable personality vanish. But Fechner will not 
accept this. He argues for personal continuance, in- 
voking other analogies. 

The first part of our mental life is sensation and per- 
ception. These experiences are then transferred into 
the domain of memory, where they are variously com- 
pounded and inter-related, though without in the least 
losing their individual character. A visual perception 
remains a visual memory, as individual as it was in 
perception. Fechner likens earth life to the domain of 
perception and the after-life to that of memory. When 
I die the Earth-Spirit ceases to perceive through me, 
but my whole mind enters into that Spirit's memory- 
life, acquiring wider relations and closer communion 
with other spirits, yet without losing its selfhood. Also 



258 SPIRITUALISM 

it continues to develop, as a recollection develops. I 
may not have seen Antonine's Column since I was a 
boy, but it is more to me now than then, because I have 
read history and the "Meditations." In the same way, 
a spirit grows after death — becomes more to its con- 
taining Earth-Spirit — by its interaction with other 
spirits and by the perceptions of the still living. And 
spirits continue to influence the living reciprocally, as 
our recollections influence all our perceptions. My 
recollections of trees influence my perception of a tree; 
I import into the visual sensations which are all that 
the tree really causes, all sorts of remembered experi- 
ences, and I think of it not only as a flat patch of colour 
and light and shade, but as a round and rough and 
rustling thing. I perceive it as a tree, though I do 
not sense all the attributes of its tree-ness. Similarly, 
my impressions of an evening prospect may be enriched 
by the memory of an Ode to the Setting Sun or the sim- 
ilar monologue of Faust: Thompson and Goethe are 
influencing my perceptions. 

Minds, then, are closely connected and interpenetra- 
tive. If it be asked: "How can conscious personality 
be maintained if this is so?" Fechner answers with 
another question: "How can the individuality of per- 
ceptions and recollections be maintained when they are 
propagated over the same nerves and mixed up in one 
brain 4 ?" Yet they do remain distinct. Also, notes re- 
tain their individuality in a symphony, though the vi- 
brations blend inextricably. Similarly, our spirits, 
though it might seem that they must by intermixing be 
merged into homogeneity at death, may really retain 
their personality quite unimpaired. 



FECHNER'S THEORY 259 

Then as to memory. We have admittedly no physio- 
logical theory of memory, and consequently there is no 
great difficulty in supposing full memory to be carried 
over by the spirit when it leaves its body. We do not 
know how we remember things even now; is it not 
rather over-exigent to demand explanation as to how 
we shall remember them then? At least, is it not over- 
fastidious to reject the survival -belief because such ex- 
planation is not forthcoming*? 

This leads inevitably to the larger question of the 
post-mortem body. The spirit seems to have no mate- 
rial vesture. The ancient query arises: "With what 
body do they come?" The fleshly garment is transi- 
tory — is as grass, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast 
into the oven. That body, at least, is done for: 

'Tis but a Tent where takes his one day's rest, 
A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest; 

but if there is a Sultan at all — addrest, as survival-evi- 
dence indicates, not to Death but to Life — he must 
have another Tent somewhere, after his this-day's abode 
is struck. We do not see it, and are perhaps inclined 
to fall back on "etherial" bodies. But the ether is con- 
tinuous, and any dividing of it up into bodies seems 
difficult. We must turn back and see if we have really 
exhausted the possibilities of matter. 

3. Beginning, as is his habit, with the known, Fech- 
ner directs our attention to the fact of our persisting 
identity. The matter and the form of a human being 
are in continuous change, and there is no identity in 
either, between the child and the octogenarian. Yet 
we say he is the same person. His shape is unrecog- 



260 SPIRITUALISM 

nisably different, and all the molecules of his body are 
different; yet he is the "same" person. In what, phy- 
sically speaking, does the continuity of personality in- 
here 4 ? It is in this, that the later body has grown out of 
the earlier one. The body of to-day is the effect of the 
body and its environment of yesterday. 

But the body's activities are not confined to produc- 
ing the body of the moment ahead. We are continually 
affecting the external world by our actions and words, 
perhaps even by unspoken or unacted thought — for 
thought presumably is accompanied by cerebral changes, 
and those changes may affect the entire universe, by 
ether-pulses or what not. Well, the total of our effect 
on the world, the matter which has been affected by 
our activities, forms the body of our post-mortem con- 
sciousness. A brain and body are like a seed, which 
puts forth from the small and delicate structure which 
is soon abandoned, something far greater and richer. 
Whatever each one of us has contributed to the con- 
struction of the organisation of the world he will have 
in the after-life as the material basis of his spirit. 1 

This idea seems to indicate a possible way of under- 
standing or half-understanding psychometry. If every 
piece of matter which we influence, every piece of mat- 
ter which is different for our having lived, somehow 
bears part of our spirit upon or within it, we may dimly 
begin to see how an old glove can reveal things about 
its owner to a person appropriately endowed. The de- 
tails of the process evade us, but we can dimly see that 
the thing begins to look rational and connectable with 

1 "Tajresansicht," jp. 28; "Zend-Avesta," ii„ p. 258. 



FECHNER'S THEORY 261 

the body of existing science. Ordinarily information 
about me is conveyed by atmospheric vibrations ini- 
tiated by my voice, or etherial ones reflected from my 
body or from printed pages which embody — as we may 
say — my thought. Well, every visible object reflects 
light, besides having other properties; and my old glove 
is different in appearance for my having used it, and is 
different from anyone else's glove. 

I see no great difficulty, therefore, in conceiving that 
it may yield information about me, as a letter does. 
Both have been affected and their form produced by my 
actions ; both furnish visual sensations. I have at least 
been closely associated with the glove — much more so 
than with the ink and paper which my reader has be- 
fore him, which I have never seen, yet which is the 
vehicle conveying my present thought to his mind. To 
a savage, the communication of knowledge by black 
marks on paper is as mysterious as psychometry is to us. 

Whatever the reason, it is certain that objects for- 
merly belonging to the supposed spirit are found to 
facilitate the production of evidential information con- 
cerning him, usually purporting to be messages con- 
sciously sent. 

The matter which Fechner himself affected was large- 
ly in the brains of other human beings, but the sequelae 
flow outward infinitely and untraceably. My own 
brain is different from what it would have been if Fech- 
ner had not lived. My mind partakes of his spirit. He 
has largely entered into my thoughts. The brain- 
changes which have occurred in me as I absorb a part of 
his spirit are the basis of his spirit in me — the material 
concomitant of his self-conscious activity in me. If it 



262 SPIRITUALISM 

be objected that "changes" seem an unsatisfactory ma* 
terial foundation for consciousness, the sufficient reply- 
is that change is the one constant thing in the universe : 
all is in flux: my ordinary consciousness itself is sup- 
ported or accompanied by continual bodily change. My 
body is not the same for two consecutive seconds. And 
if continual change is the material concomitant of my 
consciousness so may it be with any other. 

Darwin discovers a new law. Immediately the brains 
of others are modified by the reading of "The Origin 
of Species," and their minds are influenced concomi- 
tantly. Darwin's spirit lives in them. The contempo- 
raries of Darwin die, and he ceases to live in their par- 
ticular brains, but lives on in those who read his books 
and who have in any way been influenced by his life 
and work. Thus Darwin's present body is made up of 
matter spread widely over the earth. It exists wherever 
his spirit exists; wherever his thought is still active. 
And in thus really entering into the minds of men he is 
in far closer communion with them, and with a far 
larger number of them, than is possible in the earth 
life : for here we can be consciously in touch with only 
a few other minds at a time, and that through the dim- 
ming and distorting medium of sense and language. 

If it is said that this widely diffused body seems an 
absurd idea — that the body does not hang together; the 
reply is that all matter is connected, and that distance 
is a relative thing. To a blood corpuscle it may be 
unthinkable that one consciousness is spread over such 
a huge area as a human brain. To a molecule of pro- 
toplasm it would be more unthinkable still. Mole- 
cules are separated from each other by spaces propor- 



FECHNER'S THEORY 263 

tionately much greater than those which separate hu- 
man beings; how can the same consciousness include 
such widely sundered particles — how can they hang to- 
gether as parts of one particular whole, when obviously, 
to molecular consciousness, they do not hang together at 
all? Yet the fact is that they do; that the same con- 
sciousness does include them all. So also may the 
matter-particles which — to us widely sundered — serve 
as the body of a "departed" spirit. He has dropped the 
little body which we knew; but he has only gone out 
into the wider body which he built by his activity when 
incarnate. 1 Perhaps we may regard this wider person- 
ality, on its psychical side, as the "subliminal" of 
Myers. During the incarnate life it remains asleep 
and is outside normal consciousness. In certain abnor- 
mal states, such as clairvoyance, the light of conscious- 
ness wanders into the wider body temporarily and 
brings back information normally unknown ; but we do 
not enter into full possession of the wider body until 
we leave our flesh. This sleep of the wider self during 
our present-life incarceration is supported by an in- 
genious analogy to be noted presently. 

It is often asked, concerning the future life : "Shall we 
know each other, and, if so, how can we now represent 
to ourselves such recognition when the well-known body 
is no longer there?" The answer is that the effects of 
our bodily life will still represent that former body to 
those in the next world, when suitable occasion arises; 
somewhat as in memory we are able to recall perceptions 
without re-experiencing the old sensory stimuli. "The 
spirits will be able to see each other in their former sem- 

*"On Life After Death," pp. 90, 91; "Zend-Avesta," ii., p. 254. 



264 SPIRITUALISM 

blance, without possessing a small, spatial, material eye, 
when they turn their attention to each other. At pres- 
ent a wall, or distance, prevents me seeing others. Bar- 
riers of this kind do not continue to exist in the memory- 
world ; the future-life form can appear instantaneously, 
here or there, whenever it is conjured up. Still, bounds 
and barriers will not be altogether done away with: 
some will exist, as in our memory-life now; for recol- 
lections are only called up according to the laws of asso- 
ciation, and with the psychological laws of the present 
those of the hereafter will coincide." * 

Fechner then goes on to tell two more or less eviden- 
tial apparition-stories related to him by scientific friends 
of his own. As to the inferences to be drawn, "appari- 
tions of this kind afford in themselves no means of de- 
ciding whether they are projected into the external 
world from the brain of a living person by some ab- 
normal functioning of the imagination, or whether they 
impress us from the external world in consequence of 
causes somehow abnormally functioning in the spirit- 
ual realm, or whether perhaps there is a mixture of the 
two, in some mutually conditioning way." (This is 
quite in the best modern S.P.R. manner.) "But if 
we turn for help to our usual analogical method . . . 
it at once strikes us that in our own thought-life there 
are not only things that have really existed, but also 
imaginary things woven out of different recollections 
— indeed, the novelist invents whole histories." 2 

Thus, as Fechner would now say, apparitions may be 
really supernormal and objective, yet not evidential of 
survival, though they may seem so. They may be the 

1 "Tagesansicht," p. 100. 7 Ibid., p. 102. 



FECHNER'S THEORY 265 

unconscious creations of living (incarnate) minds, 
which send out impulses which cause hallucinations in 
others. Thus the apparition of Mr. Walker- Anderson's 
aunt (pp. 117-118) may have been telepathically caused 
by some surviving relative in England. But if Fech- 
ner had had at his disposal the data which we now pos- 
sess, it is probable that he would have been driven to 
admit that the spiritualistic hypothesis seems the more 
likely to be true. For one thing, we have experimental 
evidence (e.g. Mr. S. H. Beard's, pp. 118-119) for the 
"telepathing" of one's own apparition, but no good case 
of the telepathing of some one else's. 

As a further illustration of the more extensive life of 
the hereafter, Fechner points to the wider memory of 
the somnambule, somewhat in the same way as Myers. 
The deeper the sleep, the nearer the approach to after- 
life knowledge which, however, cannot be altogether 
brought over or back into the present small conscious- 
ness, the latter not being big enough to hold it. Death 
is only a sleep so deep that the spirit goes out of the 
body entirely, staying out instead of coming back. 
When we go out and take possession of this "sublimi- 
nal" we shall remember all that we have forgotten. We 
only forget it because it went to the hereafter-life be- 
fore us. 

Now to the further analogy, already mentioned, with 
reference to the sleep of the subliminal during incarna- 
tion. 

Man lives on earth in three stages. In the first (the 
uterine) he is asleep, in the dark, alone, developing 
from the germ a body fitted for the second stage. In 
the second stage (this life) he alternates between wak- 



266 SPIRITUALISM 

ing and sleeping, in light and darkness alternately, as- 
sociated with, yet separate from, his fellows, develop- 
ing his mind and fashioning organs for its use in the 
third stage. In that third stage he is awake for ever, 
interwoven with the life of other spirits, consciously 
working in the higher life of the Highest spirit. Death 
is a further birth. Each step leads to fuller conscious- 
ness. Birth leads us forth to see the world outwardly. 
Death leads us into the wider vision, to see the world 
inwardly. As Bergson might say, Stage Two is intel- 
lectual, while Stage Three introduces us to feel the 
reality of things from within. "Instead of passing by 
hills and meadows, instead of seeing around us all the 
beauties of spring and grieving that we cannot really 
take them in, as they are merely external, our spirits 
shall enter into those hills and meadows, to feel and 
enjoy with them their strength and their pleasure in 
growing": instead of laboriously expressing ourselves 
in words we shall dwell in the inmost souls of our 
friends, thinking and acting in them and through them. 1 
The wider body of the third life is asleep, not self- 
conscious, until after death, as the body of the second 
life is asleep and not self-conscious until after birth. 
What is it, one may ask, that wakes the third-life body 
to self -consciousness at death? The answer is that it 
is precisely the fact of death. Conscious energy is like 
physical energy — it is conserved, cannot be destroyed 
and produced afresh. It only changes its place, form, 
and manner of acting, as the body does. When it sinks 
in one place it rises in another. "That your eye may be 
awake, may see consciously, your ear must go to sleep 

^'On Life after Death," pp. 32, 33. 



FECHNER'S THEORY 267 

for a while." For mental activity to exist in high de- 
gree all the senses must more or less sleep; we cannot 
think if we are continually having our attention occu- 
pied with sights and sounds. Now the most complete 
sinking of sense-consciousness is that which takes place 
at death. Therefore there will be a correspondingly 
high rise of consciousness elsewhere. 

Fechner's scheme, as will be seen from what has been 
said, is strictly scientific. Indeed, it is more scientific 
than the schemes of many scientists, for some of these 
latter seem unable or unwilling to extend causality into 
the mental domain. No one can deny that thought- 
activity exists. It is more certain than brain-activity. 
And if all activity has an effect, a sequel or train of se- 
quelae, there must be something mental as a sequel to 
this-life mentality, concomitant with the physical effects 
of the this-life corporeality. The two trains of effects 
are the spirit and body, respectively, of the after-life. 

Whether we can accept the Fechnerian system or 
not will depend on individual leanings. To many of us 
it may seem too daring and dazzling either to accept or 
reject offhand. Perhaps the wisest thing is to study it, 
without feeling any obligation to decide ; the matter be- 
ing new and the philosophy of survival still to be 
worked out. 

On this philosophic side it is sometimes urged that we 
cannot reason from the phenomenal to the noumenal, 
from the world of appearance to the world of reality; 
that consequently nothing happening in the material 
world can prove the existence of a spiritual one. But 
this is easily answered. We fully agree with Kant that 
a spiritual world cannot be proved coercively and in 



268 SPIRITUALISM 

such knock-down fashion that belief cannot be avoided. 
But it can be proved in the same way and to the same 
extent as many other things which we believe and find 
ourselves justified in believing. For example, we can- 
not prove to ourselves that other human beings exist, 
or even that an external world exists; my experience 
may be a huge subjective hallucination. If I were read- 
ing this chapter to an audience I should not be able to 
prove to myself that any other mind was present. 
Looking around, I should receive certain impressions — 
sensations of sight — and I should call certain aggrega- 
tions of these the physical bodies of beings like myself. 
From the similarity of their structure and behaviour to 
the structure and behaviour of my own body, I should 
infer that they had got minds somehow associated with 
them, as my mind is associated with my body. But 
they could not prove it to me. If they got angry with 
my obstinacy and knocked me down I should experience 
painful sensations, but the existence of minds external 
to me — and angry ones — would still be a matter of in- 
ference only, though a justifiable one, for it "works," 
and by means of such inferences social life is made pos- 
sible, and the proof which we psychical reseachers put 
forward for the existence of and communication from 
discarnate minds, is of the same kind as the proof we 
have of the existence of incarnate minds. It is an af- 
fair of observation and inference in both cases. Usual- 
ly we prefer to speak of evidence rather than proof, 
the latter term being loosely used. Proof in the induc- 
tive sciences, of which psychical research is one, is not 
the same thing as mathematical or logical proof. Our 
evidence may be insufficient to justify belief — in the 



FECHNER'S THEORY 269 

opinion of many, it is — and I blame no one for dis- 
believing; but it is evidence. Says Bishop Berkeley, 
whom J. S. Mill, himself no idealist, considered the 
greatest philosophical genius of all time : "The physical 
universe which I see and feel and infer, is just my 
dream and nothing else; that which you see is your 
dream; only it so happens that our dreams agree in 
many respects." Philosophically, that is the state of 
the case. For Science and the practical affairs of life, 
however, we accept experience and inference, and act 
on their "reality." 



CHAPTER VII 

SPIRITUALISTIC CONCEPTIONS OF AFTER-DEATH 

CONDITIONS 

AS to the nature of the future life, spiritualistic 
teaching is Swedenborgian in its assertion of 
similarity to earth-life, but in accordance with the more 
wholesome and more optimistic idea of universal sal- 
vation ultimately, it postulates a continual progres- 
sion, and no eternal hells. We have already remarked 
on a certain similarity between Early Christianity and 
modern Spiritualism, and one of the resemblances may 
be pointed out here. It is evident that some of the 
best minds among the early Fathers did not believe in 
everlasting punishment, while rather encouraging the 
belief among the general public because nothing short 
of such severity could restrain the ordinary person's 
sinful tendencies ! 1 It is a curious illustration of do- 
ing evil that good may come, and retribution for the 
insincerity became apparent as time went on, and good 
men left the Church because they could not believe in 

1 Origen, in "Against Celsus," bk. vi., ch. xxv., refers to Gehenna as 
"the place of punishment, intended for the purification of such souls as 
are to be purified by torments"; and remarks in ch. xxvi., "it is not 
unattended with danger to commit to writing the explanation of such 
subjects, seeing the multitude need no further instruction than that 
which relates to the punishment of sinners; while to ascend beyond 
this is not expedient, for the sake of those who are with difficulty 
restrained, even by fear of eternal punishment, from plunging into 
any degree of wickedness." 

270 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 271 

a God who would punish for ever sins committed in a 
finite time by beings for whose creation He was entirely 
responsible. It would have been better to say frankly 
that punishment would be remedial and for the soul's 
good, continuing only until repentance and a turning 
away from sin becomes manifest. Love towards God 
would then still have remained possible ; but men could 
not love or respect a deity more cruel than themselves. 
They might fear Him, but character is not improved by 
fear, as we now recognise. Rather is it debased. And, 
however it may have been in those wild early days — 
admitting, if we like, that strong measures of creedal 
restraint were necessary — we are mostly agreed that 
sensitiveness is great enough now to render the night- 
mare of a belief in eternal Hell unnecessary. Punish- 
ment duly apportioned to extent of sin is sufficient, 
and our sense of justice is satisfied. This means that 
Hell is a fiction, but that purgatory is a fact; and it 
has been noticeable how theologians and preachers, 
shocked into living thought by the transition of mil- 
lions of young men too good for hell and not good 
enough for a stainless heaven, have revived in one or 
other form the purgatorial idea — even Nonconform- 
ists like the Rev. J. D. Jones, of Bournemouth. And 
perhaps the spiritualistic and Early-Church idea of a 
number of "heavens," in one of the lower of which 
we may place such "hell" as there is, is better than 
using the word "purgatory," which inevitably recalls 
the fiendish horrors in Dante, and the abuses of Ro- 
manism. 

Progress, then, takes place in a series of "spheres," 
though the division is more or less arbitrary, for if 



272 SPIRITUALISM 

there is smooth gradation it seems inconsistent to say 
that No. 2 begins here and gives place to No. 3 there. 
Probably the idea is a survival of traditions about a 
number of heavens (St. Paul was caught up into the 
third: 2 Cor. xii.), and about the sacredness of the 
number seven. Moreover, in early times there were 
seven "planets" — Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, 
Jupiter, Saturn — supposed to be fixed in crystalline 
spheres at increasing distances from the earth, and 
these were regarded as connected with departed souls 
in various states of blessedness, though Dante de- 
scribes these souls as manifesting in the several heav- 
ens (ten in his system) as he passed through, rather 
than as dwelling therein. 

Certainly this idea of a number of heavens is ex- 
tremely ancient and indeed prehistoric. It runs back 
through the Kabbala, the Koran, the Talmud, to early 
Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, and India. In the Ardai- 
viraf-name there is an account of the seven heavens 
through which Sosiash travelled in seven days, and the 
first heaven seems to have been a sort of purgatory 
for spirits not good enough to go higher. The 
heavens increase progressively in glory, and in the 
seventh Zarathustra sits on a golden throne. 

The Jews believed in a plurality of heavens, as is 
shown by the plural form of the Hebrew word for 
"heaven" in Deuteronomy x. 14; 1 Kings viii. 27; 
Psalm cxlviii. 4, and it is probable that they followed 
the sevenfold division, for they seem to have recog- 
nised seven "planets," as also did the Persians, who 
had a representation of them in the Mithraic Mys- 
teries (Origen, "Against Celsus," bk. vi., ch. xxii.). 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 273 

though they put the order as Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, 
Mercury, Mars, Moon, Sun. About the time of the 
birth of Christ the idea was common, as shown by the 
"Book of the Secrets of Enoch," and the very inter- 
esting introduction by Dr. R. H. Charles, to which I 
am indebted for many of the references in this chapter. 
This book, lost for 1,200 years, and edited in English 
for the first time in 1896, was written between 30 b.c. 
and a.d. 50 by a Hellenised Jew living in Egypt, 
probably in Alexandria, and is the probable source of 
some New Testament passages. There is certainly 
evidence of the belief in the plurality or even in the 
sevenfold division of the heavens in the Pauline 
Epistles — Hebrews, Ephesians — and in the Apoca- 
lypses. 1 Clement of Alexandria and Origen were 
more or less favourably disposed towards it, and the 
latter identifies the heavens with the planetary spheres 
of the Greeks. 2 He says also (in "Against Celsus," 

1 Paul's location of Paradise in the third heaven agrees with the 
"Secrets of Enoch" account. 

2 "I think, therefore, that all the saints who depart from this life 
will remain in some place situated on the earth, which holy Scripture 
calls paradise, as in some place of instruction, and, so to speak, class- 
room or school for souls, in which they are to be instructed regarding 
all the things which they had seen on earth, and are to receive also 
some information respecting things that are to follow in the future. 
... If any, indeed, be pure in heart, and holy in mind, and more 
practised in perception, he will, by making more rapid progress, 
quickly ascend to a place in the air, and reach the kingdom of heaven, 
through those mansions, so to speak, in the various places which the 
Greeks have termed spheres, i.e., globes, but which holy Scripture 
has called heavens; in each of which he will first see clearly what is 
done there, and in the second place will discover the reason why 
things are so done: and thus he will in order pass through all grada- 
tions, following Him who hath passed into the heavens, Jesus the 
Son of God, who said, 'I will that where I am, these may be also.' " 
But really "He Himself is everywhere, and passes swiftly through 
all things." "De Princepiis," ii.» xu 



274 SPIRITUALISM 

vi. 22) that in the Mithraic Mysteries the five planets 
and the sun and moon are represented as connected 
with a heavenly ladder. 

The plurality of the heavens was gradually aban- 
doned as moral ideas grew clearer, "heaven" coming 
to mean a state of perfection and therefore not ap- 
plicable to places or states of progression, which in- 
volve imperfection. But Catholic theology retained 
three after-death states, and Protestant theology two, 
and it does not seem certain that the fewest number 
is necessarily the truest. It would seem more likely 
that the stages are, so far as our small minds can go, 
infinite. 

But infinites are never satisfactory for the word 
means only negation — or not-finite — and it is not sur- 
prising to find a recrudescence of a seven-heaven belief 
in modern times, science having established gradation 
and continuity in nature, which suggests similar grada- 
tion and progression in "supernature." How far the 
idea is dependent on acquaintance with the earlier 
writers, how far it may be in each case original, and 
how far there is objective truth in it, it is impossible 
to say. Certainly the spiritualists prior to 1896 had 
no knowledge of the "Book of the Secrets of Enoch," 
which gives the fullest ancient Jewish or Christian 
account ; but they had Dante, and one of A. J. Davis's 
friends (Rev. George Bush) was Professor of Hebrew 
and no doubt acquainted with the Talmud and the 
Vishnu Purana. And a modernised version of those 
earlier ideas would seem preferable to the heaven and 
hell belief which was fading. A more gradual system 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 275 

was required to satisfy our moral sense as well as to 
be more in harmony with scientific analogies. 

Since writing the foregoing, I have received a rather 
curious narrative from a correspondent, which seems 
to support the gradation theory. The little daughter, 
aged six, of a man who was killed in the War, "con- 
stantly sees and describes her father as near her and 
giving messages. Amongst others she said: 'Father 
says there are several heavens, and lots of flowers, ever 
so many more kinds than here.' As she has never 
been told these things, and is quite natural and 
healthy, one can't imagine deception in so young a 
child. Very often he tells her there is a parcel or 
letter waiting in the hall — the flat is very high up — 
and this always turns out to be true." There is cer- 
tainly reason to believe that children have the gift 
of "discerning of spirits" more than their elders, and 
it may be that we have often dismissed as "imagina- 
tion" the real perceptions which come before the 
"shades of the prison-house" of adult materiality be- 
gin to close upon the growing soul, as Wordsworth 
has it in the "Ode on Intimations of Immortality." 

A. J. Davis seems to have called the abode of de- 
parted spirits "Summerland" in a general sort of way, 1 
but Hare says that the third sphere is the plane to 
which ordinary decent souls ascend at death, 2 and 
some writers regard this third sphere as being Summer- 
land in particular. Hare and Hudson Tuttle are 

1 "Events in the Life of a Seer," New York, 1873, 5th ed., p. 292. 

2 "Experimental Investigations of the Spirit Manifestation Demon- 
strating the Existence of Spirits and their Communion with Mortals," 
pp. 1 19-124 (quoted at some length in my "Psychical Investigations," 
pp. 261-7). 



276 SPIRITUALISM 

extremely definite about the spatiality of the spheres. 
Tuttle says that they are zones rather than spheres, 
and that they extend sixty degrees on each side of the 
earth's equator. "If we take the sixteenth parallel 
of latitude each side of the equator, and imagine it 
projected against the blue dome of the sky, we have 
the boundaries of these zones." The first is sixty 
miles from the earth's surface, the next is about an 
equal distance farther, the third is "just outside of 
the moon's orbit," * and so on. The material of these 
spheres is "formed from emanations arising from the 
physical universe," 2 and the spiritual universe is a 
reflection of the physical one. 

Mr. J. Hewat McKenzie develops a similar system, 
with exact distances given. The first sphere begins 
at 300 miles from the earth's surface and extends to 
750 miles. The second sphere begins at 1,000 miles 
from the earth, and extends to 1,250 miles. The 
third sphere or summerland is 1,350 miles from earth, 
and so on. The seventh sphere, where Christ dwells, 
is 18,250 miles away from us, 3 and is a place of gold 
and jasper and crystal, with no vegetation or flowers. 
It reminds us of a mixture of the Apocalypse and the 
heaven-idea of Early Christianity, which regarded the 
Empyrean outside the Ptolemaic spheres as the abode 
of God and the blest in general, as expounded in 
Dante's "Paradiso." 

Dr. T. W. Wilson, while conforming to the seven- 
sphere theory, asserts that the First Sphere extends to 
the confines of the material universe, the others being 

1 "Arcana of Spiritualism," p. 385. % Op. cit., p. 280. 

3 "Spirit Intercourse," pp. 158-9-60. 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 277 

therefore spheres only symbolically, for the immaterial 
can hardly be visualised as having shape. In the 
Seventh Sphere dwell God and Christ. 1 Dr. Wilson's 
information was received from high spirits through 
the mediumship of his son, and both seem to have been 
genuinely convinced of its authenticity. Dr. Wilson 
left a flourishing medical practice in England to bury 
himself in Rocky Mountain solitudes in order that 
the revelation might come in specially pure surround- 
ings. He published three bulky volumes — in 1908, 
I think — of which very little has since been heard. 
There is nothing evidential in them, and the whole 
thing may have been subliminal in origin, based on 
acquaintance with the writings of Davis, Tuttle, or 
Hare. If so, it is tragic that an able and useful man's 
life should be so wrecked; such incidents should warn 
us against accepting communications too readily at 
their face value. 

The Theosophical scheme, we may here recall, is 
somewhat similar, though less materialistic. Mr. 
Leadbeater, describing the seven subdivisions of the 
astral plane, says, "We must not fall into the mistake 
of thinking of them (or, indeed, of the greater planes 
of which they are only subdivisions) as separate local- 
ities in space — as lying above one another like the 
shelves of a bookcase, or outside one another like the 
coats of an onion." 2 But he goes on to say that "the 
higher varieties of matter extend farther away from 
the physical earth than the lower," 3 which seems to 

1 "Theocosmia." 

a "The Astral Plane," by C. W. Leadbeater, p. 17. 

*Loc. cit. 



278 SPIRITUALISM 

involve spatiality; so we are left rather puzzled. 
(Mr. Leadbeater says that the summerland of the 
spiritualists corresponds to the first, second, and third 
subdivisions of the astral plane.) Mr. A. P. Sinnett 
also uses spatial terms, referring to "the higher spheres 
surrounding the physical planet." 1 

In all this, and much besides, it is difficult or im- 
possible to decide how much each writer or medium 
has been influenced by previous teaching. Sir Oliver 
Lodge points out in his book "Raymond," in refer- 
ence to the "unverifiable matter" which echoes almost 
exactly the doctrine of Hudson Tuttle, that the me- 
dium or control may pick up a good deal from sitters, 
and may retail it in good faith. Tuttle suggests that 
Professor Hare, having fixed up an after-death scheme 
to satisfy himself, would ask his medium leading ques- 
tions — "how many spheres are there — seven?"; "is 
the third Summerland*?" etc., etc. — and would natu- 
rally get complete confirmation. On a subliminal 
theory of "controls," this is to be expected; and if a 
medium has sat with someone who accepts Davis's or 

1 "Nineteenth Century and After," September, 1917; article, "Re- 
ligion under Repair." The modern Theosophical doctrines are mostly 
drawn from Indian sources, which describe seven planes or Lokas, but 
they are planes of increasing spirituality rather than places; and we 
exist in some or all of them at the same time, withdrawing from the 
lowest between incarnations. ("Vishnu Purana," cited in "An Ad- 
vanced Text-book of Hindu Religion and Ethics." Published by the 
Board of Trustees, Central Hindu College, Benares, 1905, p. 142.) 
It is possible enough that Davis also got his inspiration directly or 
indirectly from Indian sources, for his system has the idea of the in- 
drawing of the universe into God and then a new forth-putting, which 
corresponds to the Day and Night of Brahma. These ideas were very 
much in the air in New England in Davis's time, as Emerson's writ- 
ings show. (Poem, "Brahma," etc.) Professor H. H. Wilson's trans- 
lation of the "Vishnu Purana" was published in 1840, and was read 
by Emerson, who was indisputably the greatest intellectual force in 
America during Davis's formative period. 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 279 

Turtle's ideas or something like them, the probable 
source of the sphere-teaching of that medium's control 
may be surmised; though we must remember, in fair- 
ness, that the ideas may be true, and not necessarily 
borrowed at all. And even in this latter case, the 
borrowing and retailing do not invalidate any evi- 
dence of identity that may be received. The com- 
municator may be really there, but, communicating 
through the control, his messages get more or less 
mixed with thoughts in the latter's mind, whatever the 
control may be, spirit or secondary personality. But 
in my own investigations, which have yielded much 
evidence of identity of departed relatives and friends, 
I have had many references to gradual progress, but 
none to numbered spheres. 

The nearest I should get to the sphere-idea, if I 
allowed imagination free play with a quasi-material 
"next world," would be a sort of compromise between 
Origen and Fechner. For example, consider the fact 
that fishes and many forms of life — mostly low forms 
— live in the sea, with an ocean of water round and 
above them. On the land, higher up, live higher 
forms, including ourselves, with an ocean of air above 
us. May it not be that higher up again there are still 
higher forms of life — namely, discarnate intelligences, 
with freedom and faculties and surroundings as far 
transcending ours as ours transcend those of a plaice 
on the sea-floor^ True, we do not see these beings; 
but neither does the plaice see us. We are not in its 
universe. To us, of course, the plaice and ourselves 
are in the same physical universe, because we have 
the larger view. Similarly, to God, discarnate spirits, 



28o SPIRITUALISM 

incarnate human beings, animals, deep-sea life, and all 
their gradations, are seen as in the same universe, 
though the different orders, along certain lines of 
cleavage, do not perceive each other. In fact, it 
seems likely enough that the universe swarms with un- 
seen life, interpenetrating the matter which we know. 
Certainly it is full of potential reality which we 
know nothing of, for our senses are adapted only to 
narrow ranges of stimulus. Our ears respond to at- 
mospheric vibrations of 32 to 32,768 per second, our 
eyes to ethereal vibrations of 450,000,000,000,000 
to 750,000,000,000,000 per second. 1 What our ex- 
perience would be like if we could sense other rates 
we do not know. Thus, even arguing physically, 
there is much activity which we do not perceive; and 
it is reasonable to surmise that there are beings in 
whom this activity produces perception and is their 
world. 

We can accordingly see that, however it may be as 
to the exact details of after-life conditions — whether 
lived in the upper air or elsewhere — we shall still be 
in a real world, for our surroundings will be of the 
same order as and adapted to the organs by which 
we perceive them, as they are in our present state. 

As to spatial relations, this theory of discarnate life 
in the upper regions of the earth — in its airy ocean 
or envelope — is somewhat supported by various facts 
or traditions. Jesus ascended from His disciples' 
sight. The levitation of saints during moments of 
ecstasy, in which physical conditions may have been 

*Sir William Crookes, Presidential Address, S.P.R., "Proceedings," 
xxi., 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 281 

temporarily transcended, points similarly to a real cor- 
respondence between spiritual progress and actual 
movement away from the earth's centre. Clairvoy- 
ants see departing forms rising from the dying body. 
High ground is universally regarded as holier than 
low-lying land. Jehovah dwelt on His holy hill, 
Zeus and his train on Olympus. Christ will come to 
meet His followers in the air. 

And in spiritualistic phenomena there must be some 
meaning in the so-frequently noted sensation of cold. 
This has never yet been explained. May we not 
hazard the guess that it is somehow connected with 
that higher abode of the blest, which, though not cold 
to its inhabitants whose senses are adapted to it, would 
be intensely cold to us; and that these descending souls 
bring down to some extent the conditions of their 
plane, so far as we are able to sense them — as a per- 
son coming in from a flower-garden may bring faintly 
perceptible traces of his previous surroundings*? 

Again, these descending souls often speak of the 
greater freedom of their state, as we might speak of 
ours to our hypothetical plaice; and they say, as we 
might say, how dense and unpleasant is the lower 
atmosphere. They cannot tell us much that we can 
understand about their life, except by comparing it 
with ours and affirming its greater happiness and ful- 
ness and beauty. And this is as much as we could do 
with our plaice, even if it had a human intelligence. 

But all this is mere speculation, and is probably too 
materialistic. The official leaders among the spiritual- 
ists are wisely cautious about sphere-doctrines with 
their hard-and-fast numeration. There is no mention 



282 SPIRITUALISM 

of them in the pamphlet already mentioned, "The 
Seven Principles of Spiritualism," by Mr. Hanson G. 
Hey, Secretary to the Spiritualists' National Union. 
And it is not prominent in such books as Stanton 
Moses' "Spirit Teachings" and W. T. Stead's "After 
Death," which have probably had a larger circulation 
and influence than any other two spiritualistic pub- 
lications. In these the teaching is very definite 
morally, but restrained descriptively. Man is the 
same being after death as he was before, except that 
he has sloughed off his physical body. He finds him- 
self in conditions which are the result of the life he 
has lived on earth. He reaps what he there sowed. 
If he has done his best, used well such opportunities 
as he had, he will find himself in some degree in 
"heaven"; i.e. in a state much superior to his earth- 
state, though not an absolutely perfect one, for no one 
at physical death is good enough for such ultimate and 
inconceivable things. If he has used his opportunities 
badly, he will find himself in a state of discipline, as 
indeed the earth-life also is, and will remain there 
until he has learnt his lesson, when he will move on. 
But the "moving" is symbolic of change of state 
rather than place. The spirits probably still have 
some relation to space, particularly those who happen 
to be least spiritually-minded, but the relation is less 
close and binding than during the physical life. And 
the occupations and surroundings are not described in 
detail, the representations in earthly terms qf non- 
earthly things being impossible. 

Constant stress is laid on character, and on Love as 
the important feature. There are degrees in heaven, 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 283 

and "the lowest heaven is higher than the most won- 
derful vision of its bliss you ever had" 1 (which is 
pleasanter than some of the rather nightmare-like 
teachings of the occultists and Theosophists regarding 
the astral plane), but we need not concern ourselves 
with degrees. We shall experience them in due time, 
when we get there. The important thing, meanwhile, 
is to fit ourselves; to do the right thing here when we 
are; and for this the key-note is Love. "Hold fast 
to this central doctrine : Love is God, God is Love. It 
is only when we deeply, truly love, we find our true 
selves, or that we see the Divine in the person 
loved. ... If I could come back and speak in the 
ears of the children of men, I think I should wish to 
say nothing but this — Love! ... It is the Word 
which the world needs; it is the Word Which became 
flesh and dwelt amongst men." 2 

And, as to mourning for the dead: "Is it then all 
mere talk that Christ brought life and immortality to 
light? Why is it that with the certainty of the con- 
tinued existence of your loved ones you feel as discon- 
solate and forlorn as if there were no other world, 
and as if Christ had never triumphed over death and 
the grave?" 3 No one who really believes can ever 
feel sad at the promotion of our dear ones. "The 
measure of your grief is the measure of your unbelief. 
We who live in the atmosphere of the love of God 
are often sad at our own imperfections. But where 
the deed is not ours but His, when the fact is what 
His wisdom and love have accomplished, not what our 

1 Stead's "After Death," p. \z. ' Op. cit. t pp. 14, 15. 

8 Op. cit.,p. 15. 



284 SPIRITUALISM 

selfishness and sin have brought about, then all sorrow 
is the register of the spiritual thermometer of our un- 
belief." » 

The thought inevitably arises, as we have seen in 
dealing with Fechner, "With what body do they 
come?" and spiritualistic teaching on this head seems 
to be on the lines of the Pauline spiritual body. 
There is a spiritual counterpart of the material body, 
but a so-to-speak improved version, which arises from 
the physical form at death. This is supported by 
many experiences of people who in illnesses from 
which they have recovered, or in other unusual states, 
have temporarily left their bodies, being quite con- 
sciously outside them — though connected by a "silvery 
thread," as some put it — and able to look down on the 
material vehicle lying apparently dead. 2 "When the 
soul leaves the body it is at the first moment quite un- 
clothed as at birth. The spirit-body disengaged from 
the physical body is conscious, at least I was almost 
from the first." (This is unusual: a period of sleep 
usually follows.) "I awoke standing by my dead 
body, thinking I was still alive and in my ordinary 
physical frame. It was only when I saw the corpse 
in the bed that I knew that something had happened. 
When the thought of nakedness crosses the spirit there 
comes the clothing which you need. The idea with 
us is creative. We think, and the thing is." 3 Cloth- 

1 Stead's "After Death," pp. 17, 18. See also "The Undiscovered 
Country," by Harold Bayley (Cassell & Co., Ltd.), for a collection of 
automatic writings describing conditions over there. 

2 Several cases are described in my book, "Man is a Spirit." Also 
see the famous case of Dr. Wiltse in "Human Personality." 

* "After Death," pp. 26-7. 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 285 

ing on the other side seems to be at first a reproduc- 
tion of earth-forms, but later a more "angelic ,, form 
of garment. It is a frequent thing for mediums to 
describe recently dead people as ordinarily dressed, 
and long dead or very spiritual people as draped in 
robes white and shining; and this when the medium 
has no normal knowledge of the people concerned, nor 
of the recency or remoteness of their death. There 
appears consequently to be some truth, whatever it 
may be, in this idea of progressive clothing. 

This brings up again the much-debated question of 
the "reality' ' of the other side. Julia Ames, as we 
have seen, testifies that the idea is creative and that 
clothes are made at once when the need is felt. Sim- 
ilarly Stainton Moses was told that not only clothes 
but also the landscape is in some sense the product of 
the spirit perceiving it. On one occasion, after clair- 
voyantly seeing scenes in spirit-land, Mr. Moses asked 
for information and received it by automatic writing 
as usual: 

"These scenes, you say, are real — Material?" 

"No; but real. What you call material is nothing 
to us. Just as the scenes that surround you depend 
on yourself, as, for instance, in respect of colour, so 
are these scenes that you have visited externalised by 
the spirit who dwells among them. With us it would 
be impossible for a spirit at peace with itself to dwell 
in the midst of desolation and confusion; even as the 
Vain Ones could not dwell in the Valley of Rest." 

"In fact, then, a spirit makes its surroundings, and 
this is the meaning of the assertion so often made that 
we are building our house in spirit-land now?" 



286 SPIRITUALISM 

"Yes, just so. You are making your character, and 
according to your character will be your home and the 
surroundings. That is inevitable. All gravitate to 
their own place. Those flowers, and gems, and tinsel 
fripperies, the mirrors of the Vain One, and the peace- 
ful calm of the Valley of Rest, these are but exter- 
nalised symbols of those who dwell there." * 

This may seem to conflict with the often-repeated 
statements of spirits that the life there is as real as 
it is here, or more so. It may seem that a thought- 
world created by each spirit must be a tenuous, indi- 
vidual and phantasmagoric affair, as if each spirit 
were having his own hallucinations, so to speak, out of 
touch with his fellows. But the difficulty is, perhaps, 
only superficial. As Berkeley said, our earth-life here, 
solid though it seems, is itself very much of an indi- 
vidual hallucination. No two people see the same 
thing, not only because the ether-tremors which strike 
A's eyes are not the same but only very like those that 
strike B's — for they view it from a slightly different 
point or at different times — but also because A's eyes 
and brain are different from B's and therefore cause 
him different sensations and perceptions. The simi- 
larity of our experience is enough to make life and 
mutual understanding possible, but the likeness is only 
aoproximate. 

Consequently it may well be that though each spirit 
makes or conditions his own surroundings — as indeed 
he does here by the sensations and interpretations be- 
ing his own — the next world will be neither less real 
nor less a common possession than the present one. 

*"L.S.A. Addresses," p. 31. (Reprinted from "Light.") 



AFTER-DEATH CONDITIONS 287 

Indeed, it may be more so. If spirits gravitate to- 
gether according to likemindedness and not in the 
heterogeneous fashion of our present existence, the sur- 
roundings of groups over there may be more nearly 
the same for each individual than is the case here ; and 
may also, therefore, be more "real," for we decide 
degrees of reality largely by consensus of experience. 



CHAPTER VIII 



CONCLUSION 



WHAT, then, is the net upshot of the matter? 
Let us recapitulate. 

Belief in survival of bodily death had in the nine- 
teenth century become a dead letter among people of 
scientific training or habit of mind. Exceptions there 
no doubt were, for great men like Faraday and Kelvin 
believed in a Super-nature, which left room for pos- 
sible human survival; but, particularly after the bio- 
logical advance associated with Darwin and his fol- 
lowers, which carried law and mechanistic conceptions 
into previously uninvaded territory, the belief in a 
real individual survival faded almost away for most 
scientific men and even for the thinking layman and 
priest, as Dr. Griffith- Jones says. It "receded from 
the foreground of consciousness," even in the minds of 
religious people. There was believed to be no mod- 
ern evidence in its support; and, where still held, it 
was as a hope, held with "lame hands of faith," rather 
than a sure belief. 

Then Spiritualism brought a true revival. It 
claimed to produce evidence of the same kind as that 
on which Christianity itself was based. Christ 
brought immortality to light by appearing to his fol- 
lowers after his death, thus demonstrating that he was 

288 



CONCLUSION 289 

still alive. Spiritualism said that ordinary human 
beings can do the same, manifesting in less tremendous 
ways if their strength and the conditions do not allow 
of the full visible and tangible presence which Christ's 
greater power achieved, but still manifesting suffi- 
ciently to establish their existence and their identity. 
These things, indeed, had been happening all along 
the centuries, more or less, but had been neglected or 
reprobated by an uninquiring and prescientific age, 
largely dominated by a priesthood which naturally 
did its best to keep authority and power in its own 
hands. But now, in the modern atmosphere of free 
inquiry, the facts were plain to all who would seek. 

Swedenborg had laid the foundations, by his own 
experiences — sometimes "evidential" — and by his doc- 
trine of the similarity of the two worlds. In Amer- 
ica his teaching coalesced with that of Mesmer and 
his disciples, and the popular mind was ready for the 
clairvoyant revelations of A. J. Davis and the objec- 
tive phenomena of the Hydesville blockings. Davis 
taught a Swedenborgian continuity between the two 
worlds, but departed from the Swede's system by 
adopting a more Pythagorean, or more Early Chris- 
tian, or more Indian scheme of progression through 
many heavens. This was upheld, with variations, by 
Tuttle, Hare, and other later spiritualists. 

In England there had been considerable interest in 
mesmerism, but a definite spiritualistic element was 
introduced from America in the eighteen-fifties, when 
several mediums came over. These were mostly of 
the rapping variety, this form of mediumship being 
aimed at by those "developing," in consequence of the 



290 SPIRITUALISM 

early manifestations having been of that type; but 
D. D. Home showed almost the whole gamut of medi- 
umistic phenomena, and his genuine powers were at- 
tested by many legal and scientific men, among them 
Sir William Crookes (afterwards President of the 
Royal Society), Sir David Brewster, and Lord Dun- 
raven. Most of Home's sitters seem to have been 
converted to a spiritistic belief, and the most sceptical 
were forced to admit — if they investigated patiently — 
that a supernormal agency was at work. "That cer- 
tain physical phenomena, such as the movement of 
material substances, and the production of sounds re- 
sembling electric discharges, occur under circumstances 
in which they cannot be explained by any physical law 
at present known, is a fact of which I am as certain 
as I am of the most elementary fact in chemistry. . . . 
But I cannot, at present, hazard even the most vague 
hypothesis as to the cause of the phenomena." * The 
distinguished chemist and courageous psychical inves- 
tigator advanced to a spiritistic position after his re- 
markable experience of materialisation with Miss 
Cook. 

The mediumship of W. Stainton Moses was the 
next notable event, and in his case there was no com- 
prehensible motive for fraud, his sittings being given 
only to friends, without fee. Home similarly never 
asked a fee, but he probably received gifts and cer- 
tainly received and enjoyed the hospitality of famous 
people. Mr. Moses, on the other hand, lived a quiet 
and hardworking life, supporting himself first as a 

1 Sir Wm. Crookes: "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism," 
p. 3. 



CONCLUSION 291 

curate and atterwards as a schoolmaster, and earning 
the respect of all who knew him. Fraud, moreover, 
was often apparently eliminated by the circumstances 
of the case, and it is impossible to account for the ex- 
periences of Mr. Moses' sitters without either admit- 
ting the agency of discarnate beings or inventing 
hypotheses of the most tortured kind regarding the 
assumed powers — and wickedness — of the incarnate 
"subliminal." 

Meanwhile these strange happenings had begun to 
be seriously considered in academic circles, and, under 
the influence of Sir William Barrett the Society for 
Psychical Research was founded, with Professor 
Henry Sidgwick as President, and F. W. H. Myers 
and Edmund Gurney as chief workers. Starting very 
cautiously and without creed except that certain al- 
leged phenomena were worthy of investigation, the 
Society did good work in hypnotic and thought-trans- 
ference experiments, but speedily passed to wider 
fields in its investigation of Mrs. Piper. Dr. Richard 
Hodgson, who came to know more about her phe- 
nomena than any other living man, and who was 
utterly sceptical at first, grew completely convinced 
not only that the phenomena were supernormal, but 
that the communicators and controls were spirits, as 
they claimed to be. Several other leading members 
were equally or almost equally convinced — e.g. Sir 
Oliver Lodge and Mr. Myers — and the others fell back 
on telepathic suppositions. These, however, became 
increasingly difficult to maintain when the elaborate 
cross-correspondence evidence occurred later; and in 
consequence of this, added to very complex evidence 



292 SPIRITUALISM 

of classical knowledge given through non-classical 
automatists, even the sceptical wing which may be 
considered as represented by Mrs. Sidgwick and Mr. 
G. W. Balfour, admitted the reasonableness of a spir- 
itistic interpretation of some of these curious happen- 
ings. Meanwhile, Sir William Barrett and many 
others had been convinced by their own experiments 
with private sensitives, quite apart from Mrs. Piper 
or the cross-correspondences. 

Other lines of evidence point in the same direction, 
such as the haunting of houses as in the Wesley case 
and others similar, the physical phenomena of Eusapia 
Palladino, Miss Goligher, and the mediums investi- 
gated by Dr. Joseph Maxwell, and — very notably — 
the direct voice phenomena of Mrs. Wriedt, described 
by Admiral Moore. And strong support was also 
afforded by veridical apparitions and the like, dead 
people appearing to persons who were unaware of the 
death, or even, in some cases, of any illness or danger. 

The same or similar mediumistic phenomena are 
stated to occur in India among people who are unac- 
quainted with Western affairs, thus furnishing fur- 
ther support from an independent quarter. And the 
same claim is made, that they are due to departed 
human beings. 

But belief in such things is a complex matter, and 
cannot be coerced by any possible evidence. Alterna- 
tive hypotheses — subliminal memory, or telepathy, or 
other things if necessary — are always possible. And 
even among believers there are degrees. Some psy- 
chical researchers approximate closely to the spiritual- 
ists who believe, e.g. that all trance controls are genuine 



CONCLUSION 293 

spirits, while others, though believing in survival and 
communication, are in doubt about "controls,'' who 
seem more like channels in the medium's subliminal 
than separate entities — though indeed in a sense they 
may be both, for the unitary nature of the human 
spirit can hardly be considered certain, and we may 
each be a congeries of spiritual parts. This, however, 
like other problems, is for the facts to decide. Those 
who have faith in scientific method are willing to fol- 
low wherever the facts lead, in this as in other ques- 
tions. For the present it is sufficient that psychical 
research, however its workers may differ on points of 
detail, has certainly brought those who have had the 
most experience to a position of belief in human sur- 
vival and at least occasional communication, and the 
difference between spiritualist and psychical researcher 
has consequently become a difference in amount of 
caution in face of each new phenomenon rather than 
any serious divergence in ultimate opinion. 

Spiritualism, however, is a wider thing than mere 
belief in survival and communication, as Christianity 
was a wider thing, even in its beginnings, than belief 
in the Resurrection; though in each case the phe- 
nomena furnished the basis or nucleus. Spiritualism 
is a religion or cult, teaching the existence of God, 
the essential Brotherhood of Man, personal respon- 
sibility, rewards and punishments for the life lived in 
the body, and an endless progression. It is a form of 
Christianity, as the Greek, Roman, and Anglican 
Churches are, on a larger scale. And when one reads 
the works of the Ante-Nicene Fathers — the great 
Christians of the first three centuries of our era — one 



294 SPIRITUALISM 

is tempted to think that the spiritualist's belief is more 
Christian, judged by those standards nearest to the 
time of Christ, than is much of the Christianity of 
to-day. Spiritualism may, indeed, be regarded as a 
sort of revival of true Christianity, the present Chris- 
tian Churches having sunk into the same stiff and ob- 
jective conservatism as that of the Jews which Christ 
came to replace. Orthodoxy, then, having lost its 
belief, as seen in our first chapter (pp. 25-28), spir- 
itualists had to start another sect which should affirm 
the truth no longer taught from "orthodox" pulpits. 
As with all new truths, Spiritualism has never 
lacked opponents. The materialists — within and 
without the Church — said that the alleged phenomena 
either could not happen or could be explained without 
recourse to spirits if they did happen; though the said 
critics showed a singular unwillingness to provide ex- 
planations in detail, mostly confining themselves to 
crude assumptions of fraud — a hypothesis which, as 
Sir William Barrett has shrewdly said, works very 
well until one begins to learn something of the sub- 
ject by real investigation. After 3,000 years one 
might expect that everyone would agree that "he that 
answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and 
shame unto him." 1 But the materialists probably do 
not read the Book of Proverbs, so we cannot expect 
them to have profited by its wisdom; nor by the ex- 
ample of the people of Berea, who searched "whether 
these things were so, therefore many of them be- 
lieved." 2 Knowledge is not to be had without search. 
People must come and see, and if their prejudices are 

1 Proverbs, ch. xviii., 13. a Acts, ch. xvii., ix. 



CONCLUSION 295 

so strong, either against the possibility of any good 
thing coming out of Nazareth or against any unex- 
pected thing coming out of any other equally obscure 
region, that they will not trouble to come and see, they 
will remain unenlightened. That is their affair. 
And in many Instances they are doing useful work 
where they are, and are not to be blamed for not in- 
vestigating, but only for judging without knowledge. 

The Roman Catholic agrees that the things happen, 
but says — also without investigation, which his 
Church discourages — that they are diabolic; and, ap- 
pealing to the fears of the ignorant, warns the public 
off. But the devil-theory is not proven, and those of 
us who have investigated for many years without find- 
ing anything to support it, are naturally disinclined 
to accept it. Says Myers: "The terror which shaped 
primitive theologies still tinges for the populace every 
hint of intercourse with disembodied souls. The 
transmutation of savage fear into scientific curiosity 
is of the essence of civilisation. Towards that trans- 
mutation each separate fragment of our evidence, with 
undesigned concordance, indisputably tends. In that 
faintly opening world of spirit I can find nothing 
worse than living men: I seem to discern not an in- 
tensification but a disintegration of selfishness, malevo- 
lence, pride." * While agreeing with the Catholic 
that psychical investigation is not for everyone (nor, 
indeed, is anatomical investigation), we are unable to 
see that any satisfactory case can be made out for a 
wholesale devil-theory and a general prohibition. 

Both religionists and materialists fall back at need 

"Human Personality," vol. ii. f p. 78. 



296 SPIRITUALISM 

on telepathy, though materialists do so with hesita- 
tion, for, though helping to "explain" without spirits, 
it opens another door to them on the opposite side, by- 
allowing the probability of a spiritual world in gen- 
eral. No physical theory of telepathy has been worked 
out — there are no "brain-waves" known, and no re- 
ceiving stations yet discovered inside our skulls — and 
the thing does not seem to accord with the law of in- 
verse squares or the equal propagation in all direc- 
tions which physical law would require. It is in- 
creasingly probable that telepathy is a psychical not 
a physical fact ; that it takes place in a spiritual world, 
between mind and mind rather than between brain 
and brain. And of course if a spiritual world is ren- 
dered probable by the facts of telepathy, our material- 
istic friends are really hoist with their own petard in 
invoking it as an alternative to spirits. The weapon 
turns and hits them in another place. Accordingly the 
rationalist, Mr. Joseph McCabe, perceiving this, re- 
cants his opinion that the evidence for telepathy is sat- 
isfactory, but is then reduced to silence, for, if tele- 
pathy is not a fact, there is no avoiding the terrible 
superstition of spirits. One feels rather sorry for 
these harassed Rationalists nowadays. However, the 
remedy is in their own hands. They require to be 
more rationalistic; to apply their reason to investiga- 
tion instead of ignorantly denying, swayed by emo- 
tional bias. 1 

As to Protestant objections, the strongest is, per- 

1 For discussion of this, and for a philosophic treatment of the whole 
subject of Mind and Matter relationship, see Dr. William McDou- 
gall's admirable volume, "Body and Mind" (Methuen). 



CONCLUSION 297 

haps, that of the Bishop of Oxford, who fears that 
attention to psychical phenomena may turn the mind 
away from higher things. But this may be said of 
attention to any sort of phenomena — namely, science 
in general; though there is perhaps special likelihood 
in the psychical case because it adjoins the religious 
consciousness. No doubt what the Bishop fears is 
preoccupation with external evidence of a spiritual 
world, to the damage of inner development. Admit- 
tedly this caution is worth careful consideration. 

Human energy can be used to enlarge experience 
in many directions, and what we seek is how best to 
achieve a wise balance. India, for example, has con- 
centrated on the inner way of mysticism, and has stag- 
nated externally. Greece awoke to the external, and 
developed unparalleled sense of beauty, with keen in- 
tellect. Rome harnessed all its powers to the external 
aims of Empire, and lost its soul, as Germany has done. 
The downfall of Rome — there being nothing unitary 
to put in its place — brought intellectual night on Eu- 
rope for a thousand years, until the Renaissance. Sci- 
ence appeared, and objective inquiry won great results. 
The three or four hundred years between Bacon and 
the present day brought greater changes than history 
had to show in all the times before; e.g., before the 
introduction of railways in the eighteen-forties, the 
methods of travelling were what they had been in 
Julius Csesar's day — no better. And now we have 
aeroplanes which travel faster than any train, and we 
communicate with the ends of the earth, almost in- 
stantaneously, by that new miracle which we call elec- 
tricity. But we need more than this objective con- 



298 SPIRITUALISM 

quering of the forces of nature. Objective power is 
good, but it must be rightly used. Concentration on 
its acquisition is apt to lead to spiritual blindness and 
wrong uses. Mephistopheles was all intellect, with 
no morals or spirituality. 

We seem to need a blending of East and West. 
We must retain our scientific gains, but must extend 
our vision beyond the material. We must see the uni- 
verse as a spiritual thing of which the material world 
is a part. And to those who have no religious experi- 
ence of their own — no first-hand inner touch with un- 
seen Intelligence — this perception of wider horizons 
seems likely to be best awakened by the new science 
called psychical research. It follows the method now 
trusted by the modern man, and it leads out of the 
material scheme into wider realities. Nay, even for 
those who have or have had inner experiences, it like- 
wise brings an otherwise unattainable help and libera- 
tion; or at the least a confirmation not easily to be 
over-estimated. Thus it was with F. W. H. Myers. 
!%• when he found that the evidence for the central 
fact of his faith was insufficient for the structure of be- 
lief erected upon it, he honestly surrendered that belief, 
bitter though the loss to him was. But after thirty 
years of psychical research he found his earlier faith 
confirmed and far more firmly established, and could 
say: "I recognise that for me this fresh evidence — 
while raising that great historic incident of the Resur- 
rection into new credibility — has also filled me with 
a sense of insight and of thankfulness such as even my 
first ardent Christianity did not bestow." * 

1 "Human Personality," vol. ii., p. 295. 



CONCLUSION 299 

Survival and communication having been estab- 
lished, and criticisms materialistic and religious having 
been met, we reach the question of the nature of the 
future life. Fechner provides for survival without 
going into metaphysics, by supposing that the body 
used by the spirit is composed of the material particles 
which were influenced by the spirit during its earth 
life. The whole material creation is regarded as sat- 
urated with spirit, and our souls are parts of the Earth 
Spirit — and ultimately of the Spirit who vivifies 
whilst also transcending the material universe — as our 
bodies are parts of the earth and ultimately of the 
material creation in general. Fechner was to some 
extent acquainted with early spiritualistic phenomena 
and conceptions. He had sat with Slade the medium, 
and was impressed though not convinced. But he 
remarks, in his latest summing up, 1 that his system 
will accommodate alleged spiritualistic facts if neces- 
sary. 

The main current of spiritualistic thought about 
the nature of the after-life is, however, simpler and 
possibly truer than Fechner's, though indeed both may 
be true. Spiritualism makes no official pronounce- 
ment beyond the fact of progress, but tends to the 
conception of an improved version of the earth-life, 
free from physical ills, but lived in what, for want of 
better terms, we may call a body — perhaps made of 
Ether — which refines and glorifies with progress. 

This inevitably brings to the mind beautiful narra- 
tives which some of us once renounced as mythical, but 
which we may now regard, without violation of our 

1 "Die Tagesansicht Gegenuber der Nachtansicht." 



3oo SPIRITUALISM 

scientific consciences, as at least possibly true. The 
angel (and angelos means "messenger," not necessarily 
non-human) who rolled away the stone had an appear- 
ance "as lightning, and his raiment as white as snow" 
(Matthew xxviii. 3). In Mark (xvi. 5) the angel is 
called "a young man" sitting on the right side, ar- 
rayed in a white robe. Luke tells of two "men," but 
again there is "dazzling apparel" (xxiv. 4), and John 
has "two angels in white" (xx. 12). And the angel 
(Acts x. 3) or man (x. 30) who appeared to Cornelius 
was, again, in "bright apparel." All this, with the 
robes "white and glistering" of the Transfiguration, 
the halos of saints, and the like, may be airily dis- 
missed by the sceptic, who will say that light is always 
associated with goodness, and that hallucinatory 
forms of angels will naturally be luminous or white- 
robed. But when we find that sensitives to-day see 
spirits — named, described, and identifiable — in grada- 
tion of radiance according to their character, though 
the sensitive (and sometimes even the sitter) has no 
normal knowledge of the people concerned, it must be 
admitted that the fact has some bearing on those 
earlier and less well-evidenced narratives. As in the 
case of Troy, we are finding, over and over again, that 
ancient documents are much truer, in the exact literal 
sense, than has been supposed. These angelic appear- 
ances, probably of good human beings who had passed 
on to the brighter realms, are now credible enough. 
The fact of goodness and its degree being indicated to 
the clairvoyant eye — and even in striking cases to 
ordinary eyes — by lights is on the way to full estab- 
lishment by contemporary observation. 



CONCLUSION 301 

The progress symbolised by this increasing bright- 
ness, is, according to Stainton Moses' controls, a grad- 
ual dropping of limitations and imperfections, until 
personality becomes different from what we under- 
stand by that term, and indeed different from anything 
we can conceive. "Imperator" was said to be more 
like an "influence" than a person, so far as his action 
on our plane was concerned, he having reached a stage 
of development very far transcending ours. Perhaps 
Dante's "Paradiso" contains the highest truth that has 
yet been uttered on this head, though the reality is in- 
evitably beyond our comprehension. 

As to the gradations before such remoteness is 
reached, some spiritualists and most Theosophists have 
adopted a scheme of sevenfold spheres or planes, more 
or less definitely spatial. But the tendency of the 
central spiritualistic current, so to speak, is to avoid 
a too concrete system. We have high authority for 
the belief that our Father's houoe has many tarrying- 
places, 1 but attempts to portray their details are prob- 
ably unwise, our this-life conceptions being unequal 
to anything more than an adumbration of experiences 
so different. It is enough that survival is a fact, 
communication possible, progress infinite; that the 
spiritual and the material are parts of the same Cos- 
mos, similar laws holding sway in each. 

A clerical reviewer of a recent book of mine com- 
plained that I nowhere stated my belief regarding 
Christ. It seemed a curious objection, and it had not 
occurred to me that anyone would expect Christology 

*John xiv. 2. (Alternative reading to "mansions.") 



302 SPIRITUALISM 

in a book mainly describing psychical investigations. 
Somewhat similarly with this present book. Though 
touching on philosophy, theology, and religion, I do 
not see that it is necessary for me to deal with tech- 
nical theological details on which I am incompetent to 
pronounce. But for the satisfaction of the aforesaid 
clerical reviewer and others who may share his desire, 
I will risk a word or two on this perilously controver- 
sial point, which I should have preferred to avoid. 

Spiritualists seem for the most part to be uninter- 
ested in the subtleties of the Trinitarian doctrine. All 
venerate the person and teaching of Jesus, which are 
of more importance than the arguments of theologians 
concerning him. I sympathise with this attitude. I 
think it would be the attitude of Jesus himself if 
he were again here in the flesh amongst us. Not 
those who are occupied with saying "Lord, Lord !" but 
he that loveth his neighbour, acting accordingly, is 
the true Christian. But if I am pushed farther and 
asked: "Do you then believe that Christ was only a 
man?" I reply that I do not know. I do not see 
that I can reasonably be expected to know. The rec- 
ords of his life are scanty, and were not written down 
until many years after his death; their correctness is, 
therefore, far less certain than the correctness, say, of 
the records of Sir William Crookes's experiments al- 
luded to in this volume. If spiritualistic evidence is 
not sufficient to produce belief in an unprejudiced 
mind, the Biblical evidence is far less so. The Chris- 
tian believer who rejects spiritualist evidence must ad- 
mit that he is not logically consistent. 

But again: when I am asked whether I think that 



CONCLUSION 303 

Christ was only a man, I stumble over that word 
"only." Is a man necessarily such a despicable thing, 
at his highest reach, that it is blasphemy to credit Jesus 
with no more than humanity^ It might be, if all 
men were on my own low level, I admit. But what 
of saintly men like Emerson, Keble, St. Francis, and 
multitudes of others? Where are the upper limits 
of human potentiality? 

Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line, 
Severing rightly his from thine, 
Which is human, which divine. 1 

I believe that Jesus himself would never have 
spoken even of the meanest as only a man. He 
thought well of manhood, as being sons of God; he 
taught us to pray to a Father who is ours as well as 
his. 2 Indeed, he definitely classed himself with us. 
"Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, 
even God." (Mark x. 18; Luke xviii. 19.) 

But there is more to say, even than this. I do not 
assert that Jesus was only a man. I do not know 
what he was. He came in the form of humanity, but 
some of his healing and other powers, as well as his 
teaching and life and the tremendous effect thereof, 
suggest that he was, at least, greater than any human 
being of whom we have reliable or fairly reliable ac- 
counts. If Buddha was an actual man, he may have 
been a similar being, for his effect on the world has 
also been immense, his followers numbering 500 mil- 
lions. But Gautama is very dimly historical, and so 

1 Emerson: Essay on "Worship." 
3 Cf. John, xx., 17; viii., 38 to end. 



304 SPIRITUALISM 

are Zoroaster, Lao-Tze, and Confucius. So — accept- 
ing as broadly true the Gospel narratives, and remem- 
bering the unquestionable effect of that alleged life — 
we will venture to say that Jesus was the highest be- 
ing, the fullest manifestation of God, that the earth 
has known in historical times. I have no objection, 
therefore, to anyone regarding him as a superhuman 
being, far above our level. In an infinite universe 
there are probably infinite grades of spiritual existence, 
and Jesus may have belonged to some order higher 
than ours. I admit that I have felt this about Emer- 
son. Not only his writings, but also the records of 
his life, with the comments of those who knew him 
well, make me feel that he was so much greater and 
better than I, that it is with a certain surprise and 
hesitancy that I think of him as of my own genus, 
"only a man." Consequently I sympathise with those 
who, being rightly humble about their own persons 
but perhaps rating others and human possibilities in 
general too low, feel the necessity of regarding Jesus 
as more than man. They have a right to their opin- 
ion, and humility is a great virtue. All men, and 
indeed all created intelligences, are sons of the same 
Father, and many of our Elder Brothers will pass 
the "mystic line" at the upper limit of humanity, be- 
coming "divine," but not necessarily God Himself. 
Of these great spirits we know little. We may regard 
them as the Hindoos do, as incarnating on our own 
plane from time to time, as Krishna, as Jesus, volun- 
tarily and for the salvation of men. It is right, in a 
sense, to worship them, even; for their worth-ship, their 



CONCLUSION 305 

value to the world, is incalculable. Some think the 
time is now ripe for such another Avatar. Who 
knows? It may be so. 

But to me, and I suppose to most spiritualists also, 
knowledge of the exact nature of these great souls does 
not seem likely to be necessary to salvation. Being 
greater than we, they are not to be fully comprehended 
by us; but the same is true of our admittedly human 
superiors, and we do not know where to draw the line 
and say "anything above this is superhuman." The 
important thing is for us to get the spirit of these great 
ones' teaching; to perceive their greatness and to at- 
tune our will to theirs. Revelation is progressive. 
God is not dead. The exact amount of individual 
contributions, and the nature and size of the individ- 
ual, are relatively unimportant; the main thing is that 
the revelation was made. Occasionally one wave in 
the advancing tide is greater than others, but the ex- 
tent of its superiority is a secondary matter. The 
main thing is that the tide rises; the intellectual and 
spiritual inflooding of God proceeds. 

We may say, then, that spiritualism is a form of 
religion, and a good one. Other forms will do well 
to learn from it and not be repelled by crudenesses 
which are inevitable in the circumstances. Its phe- 
nomena will, in course of time, be distributed among 
different sciences, for the whole thing is probably 
much less simple than is popularly supposed. It is 
not all illusion, or all subliminal consciousness, or all 
discarnate spirits. Air was formerly thought to be 
an element, but now we know it to be a mixture of 
many gases in different proportions; and now even 



306 SPIRITUALISM 

their atoms turn out to be further divisible. Simi- 
larly, the causes of spiritualistic phenomena may be 
very diverse, and some of them may be quite unknown 
at present. It would be absurd to suppose that all the 
agencies in the Universe are known to us. Also new 
phenomena may present themselves. Some of us have 
recently witnessed something of the sort. Entirely 
new beliefs, now quite below the horizon, may arise, 
based on real evidence. But, for the present, the spir- 
itualistic belief may be called good, even by those 
who are not spiritualists in the sense of being mem- 
bers of the sect. We repeat its principles: 

1. The Fatherhood of God. 

2. The Brotherhood of man. 

3. Continuous existence. 

4. Communion of Spirits and Ministry of Angels. 

5. Personal responsibility. 

6. Compensation and Retribution Hereafter for 

good or ill done on earth. 

7. A path of Endless Progression. 



GLOSSARY 

Apforts. — Objects alleged to be brought by spirits at certain seances; 
e.g., flowers from the garden, or coins, gems, etc., from distant 
places. 

Automatic writing. — Any writing produced without conscious will; 
most automatists can use a pencil thus, and are independent of 
planchette, which usually requires two persons. 

Automatism. — Action without conscious thought and will, as when 
planchette moves and the persons touching it are not aware of 
having pushed it. Sometimes applied to trance speech, etc., also. 

Astral. — A theosophical term meaning the first stage after the physical 
life. The "astral body" is the vehicle of the spirit on the "as- 
tral plane." 

Clair audience. — Supernormal hearing. A sensitive sometimes hears 
spirits give their names, or messages. 

Clairvoyance. — Commonly applied to any supernormal vision, e.g., 
Swedenborg's perception of the Stockholm fire — but particularly 
to the "discerning of spirits." Psychical workers have suggested 
that it should be used for cases in which telepathy from another 
mind is excluded, e.g., seeing and naming a drawn card which 
no one has looked at. 

Crystal-gazing. — On looking steadily for a few minutes into a glass 
or crystal ball, some people see landscapes, faces, writing, etc. 
Usually these are of subliminal creation, externalised dreams, 
so to speak, like most planchette messages. But occasionally 
there is reason to believe that true clairvoyance, or telepathy 
from the living or the dead, is shown. 

Daimon. — A spirit or genius, as in the case of Socrates' friendly 
voice. 

Direct writing. — Writing said to be done by direct spirit power, as 
when a pencil stands up "of itself" and writes. Though sur- 
prising, it is only an extension of movements without contact, 
showing intelligence, as in poltergeist cases and the mediumship 
of Eusapia Palladino. 

Discarnate. — Out of the flesh body: in the spirit state; preferable to 

307 



308 SPIRITUALISM 

"disembodied" because spirits probably still have a body of some 
sort, but it is not made of flesh. 

Elongation. — A rare phenomenon; the stretching of a medium's body, 
said to have occurred with D. D. Home, W. Stainton Moses, and 
a few others, to the extent of six or nine inches. 

Elohim. — A Hebrew plural noun sometimes used in the Old Testa- 
ment instead of Jehovah. Thus used, it is a "plural of in- 
tensity" (Delitzsch), but it is also used for gods or spirits. 

Evidential. — Furnishing evidence; tending to prove. Used by psychi- 
cal investigators, for brevity, as meaning "furnishing evidence suf- 
ficient to justify a hypothesis of some supernormal causation." 

Fourierism. — A form of socialism, founded by Frangois M. C. Fourier 
(1772-1837). The inhabitants of the world were to live in com- 
munities of 1,800 persons, all workers and all adequately paid. 
The scheme was developed in great detail, and Fourier is still 
worth reading. 

Genii. — Spirits, good or evil, supposed to preside over the destiny 
of persons or places. See Daimon. 

Hallucination. — A percept which lacks, but which only by reflection 
can be recognised as lacking, an objective basis. Different from 
illusion, which is a misinterpretation of something really there. 

Hypnoid. — Sleep-like, sleep being here understood rather as "hyp- 
notic" sleep. 

Hypnotism. — The science or art of producing an unusual kind of 
sleep in which the subliminal powers are active and accessible. 

Inductive. — Founded on observable fact. 

Irvingite. — Follower of Edward Irving (1792-1834), founder of the 
"Catholic and Apostolic Church," who believed in the supernat- 
ural "gift of tongues" and prophecy, as continuous and not con- 
fined to the early days of Christianity. 

Levitation. — Objects being "made light," and rising in the air with- 
out normal cause. The weight (reaction) is added to some 
other person or thing in the neighbourhood of the objects raised. 

L.S.A. — London Spiritualist Alliance, Ltd. 

Materialisation. — Appearance of spirits in visible and tangible form, 
mostly at seances. 

Medium. — A person through whom, in any way, a discarnate spirit 
communicates or manifests. 

Mesmerism. — Same as hypnotism (q.v.) but with the supposition of 
an effluence from the mesmeriser. 

Multiple personality. — Several "selves" in the same person, usually 



GLOSSARY 309 

with memories not coincident but overlapping. R. L. Steven- 
son's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," though fiction, is almost paral- 
leled in fact by many cases on record. There is no physiological 
explanation yet. 

Nebular hypothesis. — The hypothesis that the solar system con- 
densed from a nebula or mass of glowing gas. (Kant and La- 
place.) 

Neo-Platonism. — The philosophy of Plotinus and his schooi ; Plato's 
teaching developed into mysticism. 

Objective. — External; real to the senses, actually or potentially; not 
merely hallucinatory. 

Okapi. — A giraffe-like animal of Central African forests. 

Ouija. — Usually a board with the letters of the alphabet on it; with 
a pointer attached to a movable piece of wood on which two 
people place their hands. Messages may be obtained if the per- 
sons have the necessary constitution, and they are unaware of 
pushing; but the communications are often dream-like, and are 
probably of subliminal creation generally, though not always. 

Osmosis. — Chemical term for differential permeation of a membrane 
by different substances. 

Percept. — The inner or psychological aspect of things perceived: a 
perception; result of observation of anything. 

Percipient. — One who perceives; but used in psychical research as 
meaning a perceiver of something unusual, e.g., a telegraphic 
impression, or apparition, etc. 

Physical phenomena. — Movement of objects without normal cause; 
also sounds so produced, as in the "direct voice." 

Planchette. — A small heart-shaped board resting on two wheels and 
a pencil, which writes when moved. Two people place their 
fingers lightly on the board, which may then move without their 
volition. See Ouija. 

Poltergeist. — A noisy spirit. 

Psychometry. — The gathering of information about the history of an 
object or its owner, by handling it. The thing is a fact, but how 
it comes about is unknown, even to the psychometrist. 

Rechabite. — Member of an Order of total abstainers from alcoholic 
drinks. (Jeremiah, xxxv., 6.) 

Reincarnation. — The doctrine that the human spirit animates several 
successive earth-bodies. 

Secondary personality. — See Multiple Personality. 

Sensitives. — People capable of receiving psychic impressions: an al- 



310 SPIRITUALISM 

ternative to "automatist" and "medium"; often preferable, being 
more noncommittal as to theories of cause of the impression. 

Shakers. — A New England religious sect, founded by Ann Lee, living 
in a socialist community. So called because of abnormal phe- 
nomena at revivals. 

Shaman. — A wizard priest of some Turanian tribes (Siberia). 

Slate-writing. — Supposed to be produced by spirits, slate usually held 
under table by medium and sitter. Difficult to exclude substi- 
tution by sleight of hand of another slate on which the writing 
had already been prepared. There are other dodges also. 
Nevertheless imitation does not prove that the thing is never 
genuine. 

S.N.U. — Spiritualists' National Union. 

S.P.R. — Society for Psychical Research. 

Subconsciously. — Without consciously willing or knowing. 

Subjective. — Inner. Not objective (q.v.). A subjective hallucina- 
tion is a perception which has no cause external to the percip- 
ient. 

Subliminal. — Below the threshold of ordinary consciousness: the 
dream level, also including apparently many modes of knowing 
and much thinking which we are only beginning to learn about. 

Supernormal. — Beyond ordinary experience or what is recognised by 
orthodox science; e.g., telepathy. 

Supraliminal. — Above the threshold; within the normal waking con- 
sciousness. 

Taoism. — One of the three chief religions of China. A sort of mysti- 
cism. Founded by Lao-Tzu, about 600 B.C. 

Telepathy. — Communication between mind and mind by channels 
other than the known sensory ones. 

Teraphim. — Images of human figure, representing ancestors or gods. 
A Hebrew plural, of uncertain derivation. ** 

Theurgy. — Magic, worked by supernatural agencies; not a usual 
term nowadays. 

Trance-control. — The spirit (or, on another hypothesis, a fraction of 
the medium's mind) which uses a medium's body when its nor- 
mally actuating self is in abeyance. 

Veridical. — Truth-telling. Conveying true information. 

World-Soul. — The spirit which by some philosophers (e.g., Fechner 
and the early Stoics) is looked on as manifesting through the 
material world as human spirits manifest through their bodies. 






INDEX 



Abercromby, Blanche (Case of), 

93-94 
Aeneid, 32-4, 255-6 
America, Spiritualism in, 216 
Ammianus Marcellinus, 36 
Ancestors, Worship of, 36 
Angels, 51, 53-5, 300 
Ante-Nicene Fathers, 293 
Apparitions, 39-46, 264-5 
Astral plane, 155, 237 
Australia, Spiritualism in, 216 

B 

Bacon, 29 

Baggally, W. W., 133 

Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 29 note, 
Rt. Hon. G. W., 119, 
161-2, 291 

Barrett, Sir William, 99, 124-5, 
130, 138-9, 145, 291, 294 

Beard, S. H., telepathic phantasm- 
projection, 152-3 

Belief, 26 

Benja case, The, 169 

Bergson, Prof. H., 29 note, 130 
note, 266 

Berkeley, 269, 286 

Biblical spiritualism, 30, 299 

Bishop of Chelmsford, 240 note 

Blanche Poyning's case of sublim- 
inal memory, 165 

Bodies, Next-life, 259-60, 262-3 

Boehme, Jacob, 54 



Book of the Secrets of Enoch, 

272 
Brahma, 298 note 
Brain function, 221 
Brahmanic scheme, The, 148 
Burns, pan-psychism, 253 



Caldecott, Prebendary, 244 

Capron, E. W., 69 note 

Carpenter, Dr., 71 

Carpenter, Ed., 33 note 

Carrington, H., 134 

Census of Hallucinations, 150-1 

Cevennes inspirational speaking, 

38 
Character determines state, 282 
Charles, Dr. R. H., 38 note, 273 
Chelmsford, Bishop of, 240 note 
Chinese spiritualism, 36 
Christ, 26, 235, 251, 280-1, 288-9, 

301-4 
Christian, The, 240 
Church Family Newspaper, 245 
Cicero, 56 

Circles, Private, 241 
Cities in heaven (Swedenborg), 

53 
Clairvoyance, 156-9, 169, 210 
Classical matter in Mrs. Piper's 

script, 108-10 
Clement of Alexandria, 273 
Clodd, Edward, 102, 224-6 
Cold breeze at sittings, 136 



311 



312 



INDEX 



Coleridge, polyglossal servant- 
girl, 163-4 

Coleridge, world-soul idea, 253 

Colville, W. J., 210 

Composite pseudo-personality, 138 

Conservatism, Roman, 232 

Consciousness, Dissociation of, 210 

Controls, Nature of, 167, 212 

Cook, Florence, 84, 246, 290 

Cox, Serjeant, 89-90, 99 

Crawford, Dr. (Physical Pheno- 
mena), 138-9, 145, 213 

Crookes, Sir William, 74, 85-6, 
139, 146, 147, 173, 280, 290 

Cross-correspondence, 115-18, 120 

Crucial cases, 168 



D 



Daimons, 37 

Dangers of Spiritualism, 236 

Dante and many heavens, 274 

(Paradise), 301 
Dark Sittings, 140, 213 
Darwin's absorption in Science, 

239 
Darwin and Biology, 288 
Davenport Brothers, 77 
Davis, A. J., 58-62, 148, 274, 275, 

289 
Davy, Sir Humphry, 222 
Deception by subliminals, 120 
Dee, Dr., 39 

De Morgan, Prof., 71 note 
Devil-theory of Spiritualism, 231- 

6 
(Dialectical Society, 79-83 
Direct Voice, 139-40 
Discoveries always ridiculed, 222- 

3 
Donkin, Sir Bryan, 228 



Dorr, G. B., 108-9 
Douglas, Lord Alfred, 231 
Doyle, Sir A. Conan, 130, 242 

note, 246 
,Duguid, David, 83 
JDying people met by friends, 157- 

9 



"Ear of Dionysius" incident, 119 
East and West, blend necessary, 

298 
Eamunds, Judge, 69 
Eeden, F. van, 113 
Eglinton, Wm., 85-6 
Egyptian literature, survival in, 

35, 36 
Elliotson, Dr., and hypnotism, 222 
Elohim, 234 
Emerson, 53, 58, 303 
English Review, 222 
Epworth haunt, 126-8, 150, 292 
Evening News, 243 
Everitt, Mrs., 78 
Experimental verification, 229 



F 



Fairies, 138 

Faith in Science, 233, 237, 293 

Faraday, 71 

Fechner, G. F., 120-1, 253-69, 279, 
299 

Feilding, Hon. E., ioi, 134 

Flammarion, Prof. C, 133 

Flints with bones of extinct ani- 
mals, 222 

Fox girls (mediums), 67 

France, Spiritualism in, 216 

Freewill, 26 



INDEX 



313 



Function of brain transmissive, 
241 

G 

Gabriel, 39 

Gautama, 303 

Germany, Spiritualism in, 216 

Genii, 37 

Ghosts, 150-60 

Globular lightning, 150 

Gods, communications from, 37, 38 

" Heathen, as devils, 234 
"G. P.," 106-7, 167 
Greece, 36, 37, 297 
Greek and Roman Ghost stories 

(Collison-Morley), 34 note 
Griffith-Jones, Dr. E., 27, 288 
Guppy, Mrs., 78 
Gurney, Edmund, 99, 150 



H 



Halifax, Lord, 102 

Hallucinations, 150 

Hare, Prof., 64, 275 

Harrison, Frederic, 220 

Haunts, 34 

Haweis, Rev. H. R., 30 

Hayden, Mrs., 71 

"Heaven and Hell" (Sweden- 
borg's), 48-53 

Heavens, Plurality of, 272-4 

Hell, 26, 27, 152, 188, 242 note, 
271 

Herschel, Sir John, 219 

Hey, Hanson G., 180 

Hibbert Journal, 256 note 

Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 105-6, 132, 
291 

Holland, Mrs., Automatic Writ- 
ing, 1 1 5-16 



Holmes, O. W., 57-8 
Home, D. D., 72-5, 82, 128, 173, 290 
Howitt's "History of Supernat- 
ural," 37, 39, 53 
Huxley, 79-80 
Hydesville knockings, 66-8 
Hymns, 184-5, 186-7, 202-3 
Hypnotism, 210 
Hyslop, Prof. J. H., 108 



"Imperator," etc., 91-2 
Impersonal down-leaking from 

spiritual world, 121 
India, Psychical phenomena in, 

142-9, 292 
Inductive proof, 268-9 
Insanity-allegations, 241-2 
Inspirational speakers, 210 
Intermediate state, 237, 271 
International Psychic Gazette, 226 
Irvingite gift of tongues, 38, 39 



James, Prof. Wm., 103-4, 221 
Jonson, Ben (apparition of son), 

152 
Joyful News, 240, 241, 244, 246, 

247 
Jung-Stilling, 46 note, 57 



Kabbala, 272 
Kant, 45-6 
Kardec, Allan, 216 
Keat's Pot of Basil, 34 
Keighley, Spiritualism in, 76 
Kelvin, Lord, 288 



3*4 



INDEX 



King, John (Eusapia's control), 

Koran, 273 
Krishna, 304 



Lang, Andrew, on Huxley, 223; 

on mediums, ib., 226 
Lankester, Sir E. Ray, 227-9 
Latent telepathy, 151, 168-9 
Laws against mediumship, 217 
Lazarus and Dives, 247-8 
Leadbeater, C. W.» on astral 

plane, 277 
Leibnitz, 253 
Lethe incident, 108-9 
Levitical prohibitions, 247 
Levitation, 74, 81-2, 90, 144 
Lewes, G. H., 79 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 105, 115, 122- 

4, 132, 227-8, 234, 236, 239, 

256, 278, 291 
Lombroso, Prof. C, 129 
Loudun, Diables de, 38 
Love, the main thing, 282 
Lyceum, Spiritualists', 205 
Lytton on apparitions, 155 



M 



Materialistic objections, 219-230 
Materialisation, 84-7 
Materialised hands (Eusapia), 

136 
Maxwell, Dr. J., 137 (raps) 
McCabe, Joseph, 227 note, 296 
McLeod, Fiona, World-soul idea 

of, 253 
Memory, 259 
Mercier, Dr. Chas., 102 



Mesmer, 56 

Mill, J. S., 269 

Miltor, 124-5 

Moore, Admiral W. Usborne, 140, 

182 
Morse, J. J., 181, 212 
Moses, Wm. Stainton, 88-98, 255, 

290-1, 301 
Movement without contact, 135- 

6, 138 
Multiple Personality, 167, 211-12 
Mtinsterberg, Prof. H., 220 
Myers, F. W. H., 31, 36, 73, 94-7, 

105, 108, 115-16, 129, 132, 151, 

153-5, i79, 214, 235, 256, 291, 

295, 298 
Mystical objections, 231-9 
Mysticism, 297 



N 



Naples sittings with Eusapia, 133- 

7 
"Nelly" control, 112 
Neo-Platonism, 35, 37 
New York Herald, 224 
New Zealand, Spiritualism in, 216 
Nichol, Dr., Materialisations, 85- 

6 
Non-Spatiality of Spiritual World 

(Swedenborg), 52 



O 



Oaten, E. W. on Spiritualism and 
lunacy, 242 

Objective method, Roman hostil- 
ity to, 236 

Operations in hypnotic trance, 222 

Origen, 270, 272, 279 

Ouija, 36, 124 



INDEX 



315 



Ovid, 109, 119 

pxford, Bishop of, 249-52, 297 



"Pagan and Pope" script, 117-18 

Palladino, Eusapia, 77, 131-7, 139 

Pan-psychism, 253-69 

Phantasms of the Living, 151, 265 

Phelps, Dr. (poltergeist), 68-9 

Phenomena and Noumena, 267 

Phinuit, Dr., 105-6, 167 

Physical Phenomena, 136-141, 
213 

Piper, Mrs., 103-112, 161, 224 

Pitris, The, 142, 146 

Planes, 156, 237 

Plato, 221 

Pliny, Ghost story in, 34 

Plutarch, 32, 33, 37 

Podmore, Frank, 56, 69, 71, 127- 
8, 151, 223, 226-7 

Poltergeists, 68-9, 126-8, 130 

Porphyry on spirits, 35 

Post mortem sleep, 158 

Prince, Dr. Morton, 212 

Private circles, 211-12 

Proof of survival must be cumu- 
lative, 169 
" Coercive, not possible, 169- 

71, 267 
" Legal aspect of, 170-1 

Protestant Objections, 240-52 

Psychical research essentially sci- 
entific, 227; proving pream- 
ble of all religions, 234 

Psychology of Belief, 170-6, 248 

Psychometry, 260-1 

Public clairvoyance, 183-203 

Purgatory, 271 

Pythagoras on apparitions, 35 



Raps, 91, 127, 137, 143 
Reality of next life, 285-7 
Reason a divine gift, 238 
Reincarnation, 216 
Renouf, P. le Page, 35 note, 155 
Resurrection, The, 26, 293 
Richet, Prof. C, 132, 139 
Roman Catholic objections, 231-7, 

295 
Rome, Script incident re, 1 16-18 
" Spiritualism in, 37 



St. Paul, 272 

Saints, Prayers to, 234 

Schrenk-Notzing's materialisa- 
tions, 139 

Secondary personality, 167, 211 

Sectarianism, 179 

Secular tone of spiritualist meet- 
ings, 209 

Sidgwick, Mrs., 150-51, 161, 168, 
292 

Sidgwick, Prof., 99, 150, 152 

Sinnett, A. P., on Spheres, 277 

Smith, H. Arthur, Presidential 
Address to S.P.R., 170-1 

Society for Psychical Research, 
29, 74, 99-125. 128, 133-4, 150- 
1, 224, 225 

Spheres, 271-81 

Spirit drawings, 76 

Spirit photography, 140-1 

"Spirit Teachings," 97, 282 

Spiritualism's high moral teach- 
ing, 235 

Spiritualism as Religion, 199-208, 
252, 293-4, 306 



3i6 



INDEX 



Spiritualism and Early Christian- 
ity, 214-15 

Spiritualism causing lunacy, 241 

Spiritualist meeting reported, 184- 
203 

Spiritualists and psychical re- 
searchers, Difference be- 
tween, 162, 167, 292 

Spiritualists' National Union, 180, 
210 

Stead, W. T., 282-3 

Stilling, Jung, 46 note, 57 

Strand Magazine, 224 

Subliminal Memory, 39, 163-4-6- 
7, 265, 292 

"Summerland," 275 

Sunday Schools (Spiritualist), 
205-8 

Swedenborg, 41-54, 289 



Talmud, 272, 274 

Taoists, 36 

Telepathy, 124, 159, 166, 168, 226, 

292 
Teraphim, 37 
Theosophy, 33, 155, 277 
Thomas, wanting evidence, 251 
Thompson, Mrs., 1 12-15 
Trance, 167, 212 
Transmissive function of brain, 

220-1 
Trinity, Doctrine of the, 235, 302 
Triviality of Communications, 244 
Tuttle, Hudson, on after-death 

spheres, 62-4, 275 
Two Worlds, 181, 209, 210, 217, 

242 
Tylor, E. B., 55 
Tyndall on spiritualism, 222 



Tyrrell, Tom, 184 

U 

Unseen life interpenetrating mat- 
ter, 280 
Ursuline nuns, 38 



Van Eeden, Dr. F., sitting with 

Mrs. Thompson, 113 
Varley, Cromwell, 82 
Vaughan, Father Bernard, 102, 

188, 235 
Verrall, Mrs., 113-117 
Vibrations, 280 
Virgilian Spiritualism, 32-4 
"Vishnu Purana," 274, 278 
Voice, Direct, 139-40 

W 

Walker- Anderson case (appari- 
tion), 1 51-2 

Wallace, Dr. A. R., 78, 91 

Wallis, E. W., 30 

Warner, Miss, 106 

Wesley haunt, 126-8, 150, 292 

Wesley anism, 215 

Wilkinson (medium), 157-8, 166 

^Villett, Mrs., 1 18-19 

Wilson, Dr., on spheres, 276-7 

(World-soul, 253, 299 

Wreidt, Mrs. (direct voice), 140, 
292 

Y 

Yorkshire Observer, 217 

Z 

Zoroaster, 304 



H 132 82 





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